Cross Your Heart
by Seishin Kibou
Summary: Yuffie, Leon, Aerith and Cid head out to Hollow Bastian to find where Sora has progressed though they find themselves doing their own adventures instead. [YuffieXLeon AKA Squiffie]
1. Lost and Found

_Authors Note: Yo This is my very first fanfic ever so just bare with me hahaha I dont own the characters, Square-Enix does...yeah thoughtI would write that since I've seen everyone do that and yeah >> Well hope you enjoy the first chapter. _

_Just so you all know, sentences in -> ' ...' - are thoughts in the characters mind. _

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**Chapter I – Lost & Found**

As usual, the day would start with the sun blazing through the window of a small hotelunit. For Yuffie it was the most annoying time of the day. Even though Traverse Town was the city known for its endless nights, there was always a dawn for a short time to symbolise the rise of a new day only then to return to night. The sunrays crept up over Yuffie's bed sheets, which disgruntled the body trying to hide under them.

"Ergh! Go away!" Yuffie yelled from underneath the covers.

"Oh, that's not very nice"

Yuffie shot up from her lying down position and searched the room from where the reply came from. To Yuffie's relief it was just her long time friend Aerith who was cleaning up the room of the scattered clothing.

"You know you really should clean this place once in awhile Yuf" Aerith stated to the half awake teenager. "It's kind of unhealthy to leave your clothes and-" Aerith picked up a pair of pants from the ground "-underwear. You know people could just walk in and see this mess." Yuffie replied to her comments by poking her tongue out deviously.

"Who else besides you would see it?" Yuffie said as she grabbed some clothes from the nearest chair and headed towards the bathroom.

"Um…Leon?" Aerith's words made Yuffie stop mid step. Yuffie spun around and leaned forward in her spunky teen girl fashion.

"Why would he be coming into here? Unless he was secretly a perverted man who loved to spy on teenage girls" Yuffie snickered before turning once again towards the bathroom, Aerith just smiled at her reply, knowing very well of Yuffie's thoughts. Of course Aerith already guessed that Yuffie had a crush on him for a while. There was enough evidence of her likings to him that even a complete stranger would know.

"I'm going to the café Yuf, I'll see you round" there was a mutter of 'see ya' from the bathroom as Aerith headed out of the room in the hotel.

Soon after Aerith's leave Yuffie re-entered her room from the bathroom. In doing so she threw her sleepwear onto the floor and started to leave the room, only to pause and turn back around. "…I can't believe I'm even thinking of picking up my clothes just because I think Leon will come in here", but Yuffie didn't want to take any chances, so she picked up the remainder of her clothes and threw them into the washing basket. She clapped her hands together with accomplishment. "That should do for now" Yuffie said. She turned around swiftly and picked up some shuriken to put in her side pocket. Since the heartless are still roaming around Traverse Town, it's better safe then sorry. It was only a few days ago did she see Sora head off to defeat Ansem. Yuffie and the others hadn't heard from him in awhile.

Yuffie locked the door to her room and headed out of the Hotel via the front exit. As she exited the hotel she stoped. "Now where shall I go today?" Yuffie pondered on many ideas of where she could go or what she could do. "I wonder where Leon is…well he's probably out training as usual, guess I'll join him" Yuffie smiled gleefully at the thought of training along side Leon. Although she isn't anyway near as strong or skilled as he is, she just enjoyed teaming up with him knocking down the heartless. Well Leon knocking down the heartless and Yuffie injuring them. Since the heartless were much stronger nowthen they used to be. It took a lot out of Yuffie to knock down a single Wyvern or Defender.

"Well I guess I do need the training" Yuffie thought, since she didn't want to be so weak that Leon had to save her from getting knocked out. Not that it was a bad thing to have Leon save her. Yuffie giggles at her daydream of Leon sweeping her off her feet after a daring rescue. "Hehehe I'd fall into a pit of heartless just to have him do that"

"Who are you talking to kid?" Yuffie spins around rapidly to see a questioning Cid behind her.

"Who was I not talking to?" Yuffie tries to make a riddle out of his question to confuse the pilot.

"What the hell?" Cid says raising an eyebrow, and scratches his forehead.

"Yeah, exactly! Well you go figure that one out, while I go and find Leon, k!" Yuffie grinned at her success of confusing the pilot and skipped away towards the doorway to the alleyway.

"Man that kid has a messed up mind" Cid said to himself.

"Who are you talking to? Kupo" Cid looked down to see one of the moogles at his feet. Cid sighed with annoyance and walked off towards his shop.

'Now where on earth is that guy?' Yuffie thought to herself while standing with her arms folded in the middle of sewer training area. 'He's normally here when he goes to train' she started to tap her foot as she thought of his possible locations he might be. 'Hmmm maybe he's gone to get some food?' Yuffie clicked her fingers at her solution. "Yeah that's what he's probably doing!" and she decided to take the shortcut up through the Wizard, Merlins house.

"Oh hello there Yuffie, how are you today?" Merlin greeted Yuffie as she appeared from the lift into his house. "Oh I'm fine thanks, you wouldn't happen to have seen Leon around have you?" Yuffie decided to ask him just out of pure curiosity.

"No I'm afraid not, though you will see him today either way" Merlin prophesised to her. Yuffie can only reply with a confused smile and say her farewells as she left through the front door, which was more on the side of the house. Yuffie never understood why that was, but then again he was a strange old man.

"Can never understand what thatold man says…Ah man! Not the shifty rocks" Yuffie stated as she appeared round the front of the house "I knew I should have gone back through the alleyway" Yuffie sighed and headed towards the first rock.

"One…two… three… four" she counted the rocks as she jumped across the lake. 'Yes I can make this last one, I just have to get it rig-' as she jumped the rock shifted hastily to the other side. "Oh no-" Yuffie's cry was cut short as she fell straight into the cold water.

"Arghh Damn it! Its frekin cold in here!" she cried out as she gasped up for air. 'Man this water is so dark…eeep what if there's sharks in here!' At that thought Yuffie swam franticly to the edge of the lake.

"Phew! Didn't get eaten…hahah yeah sharks hahah," she laughed to herself nervously trying to make herself feel less like an idiot. She flicked off as much access water from her body and proceeded towards the door to the thrid district of Traverse Town.

"Man, I'm freezing now!" Yuffie shook at the cold breeze as she walked out into the third district. "And this is my favourite scarf too" she said miserably holding out her drenched scarf. Her sudden thoughtswere suddenly cut short as she noticed flashes of black smoke in the distance.

"Just great, how am I supposed to fight off these guys with drenched clothes and water filled shoes? I wouldn't be surprised if they mistake me as one of their own. 'Cuz I'm freezing my backside off here!" Yuffie walked steadily forward as she tried to make her way through without being caught by the heartless.

'Hehehe eventhough I look like a drenched weasel my ninja skills still work' she gloated to herself but all that did was jinx her movement as she was spotted by one of the search ghosts.

"Crap!" Yuffie reached for some of her shuriken as the heartless started to form in front of her. What was more irritating for Yuffie was that the heartless were none other then a big fat Defender and some annoying Green Requiems.

"Grr, you picked the wrong time to fight with 'this' ninja…who's really cold…and just wants a shower" as Yuffie muttered on about where she would rather be the heartless began to charge towards her.

Yuffie avoided the first attack by the heartless but was then struck down hard by one of the Wyverns from above, causing Yuffie to slam into the ground. Yuffie cried out in pain through clenched teeth. The surprise attack of the Wyvern left a big gash on Yuffie's back. "Arghh that bloody hurt you stupid heartless!" she yelled out while rapidly throwing several shuriken towards the Wyvern

As Yuffie avoided the attacks of more heartless she started to think over her own abilities. 'How can I be this weak? I'm already down to critical health from just one attack?' as she thought to herself she continued to dodge the attacks of the heartless. 'All I am skilled at is dodging attacks, well if I can actually dodge them'.

Another blow from the heartless caused Yuffie to fall back against the wall. The heartless soon make escape futile by covering all the exits. Yuffie stammered against the wall, fear showing through her eyes as the heartless surrounded her. 'Guess I won't be making that hot shower in time' Yuffie smiled at her own thoughts. She looked up to see the large Defender slowly make its way towards her and the glow of the red eyes on its shield start to build up.

"I guess the wizard's prophecy wasn't true after all" upon finishing those words the shield of the defender was blown away by a fast attack from above.

"What are you doing!" yelled a voice in front of her. Yuffie recognised the voice as Leon's.

"Squ-! Ah, I mean, Leon!" was her reply to his loud questioning. Leon only turned back towards the heartless and finished of the defender. This attackcaused the other heartless to retreat back into the darkness.

"I thought I told you last time, not to go out to this area by yourself!" Leon yelled at Yuffie.

"Well… well you see I …I was looking for you and-" Yuffie was trying to find words to talk, but all she could do was scratch at her arm and look at the ground embarrassingly.

"Why were you looking for me?" Leon questioned with less anger then before.

"Well, I just... wanted to know where you were" Yuffie replied while mentally slapping herself in her for her blunt response. Leon only raised his eyebrow with her response. When Yuffie looked up she was confronted by Leon's outreaching hands.

"Ahh! I mean… what are you doing?" Yuffie said embarrassed at her reaction

"I'm checking your injuries?" Leon said more confused then before.

"Oh, I thought…never mind heh heh heh…" Yuffie's face blushed a tinge of red as she tried pathetically to hide it

"…Right, well where are your injuries? …And why are you soaking wet?" Leon noticed as he inspected her injuries on her back.

"You can blame those spastic moving rocks at the wizards place! As for injur-" Yuffie suddenly felt the cold and the injury get to her and she fell back against the wall. Leon gripped his arms quickly around Yuffie to make sure she didn't collapse onto the ground.

"Man I feel dizzy" Yuffie muttered raising her hand to her forehead.Yuffie wouldconcentrate on the reason butshe was more intimidated by Leon's sudden grip around her waste

"I think we should get out of here before more heartless come," Leon thought as he inspected the area around them. Leon took one of Yuffie's arms and wrapped it round his neck so he could take some of the weight of her body. Then they headed slowly towards the exit of sector three and into the main sector of Traverse Town, then towards the hotel. Yuffie's vision started to blur out by the time they reached the sector door. All she remembered was the door opening, and then it was blank.

* * *

"So she was out in third district and got ambushed?"

"Yeah, she really shouldn't have been out there, she should know she's not strong enough"

"Yes, but you -" the voices were cut off by a door closing; causing the figure on the bed to wake from her sleep.

Yuffie blinked a few times beforesighing and rollingover on to her back only to cringe in pain. It clicked in Yuffie's head that her injury was from the heartless that ambushed her on her way home that day.

"Grr! Stupid black headed-dumb-looking-squishy-black …things!" Yuffie muttered as she tried to find the right term to call the heartless. While doing this she turnedtonotice that she wasn't in her usual messy room yet a somewhat ordered and tidy one. Yuffie scanned the area for some clue on whose room she was in. She then spotted a familiar item that could non other belong to Leon; his gunblade case.

"I'm in Leon's room? … That must mean I'm on his…" she looked down to what she was laying on " …bed" Yuffie blushed at the thought of actually being on top of his bed let alone being in his room. Yuffie grinned mischievously as she quickly flipped to her stomach just to inhale some of his scent from the pillow. Yuffie sighed with delight as she relaxed down onto the bed and slowly fell into a quiet sleep on top of Leon's bed.

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* * *

'_You shouldn't be here!' a male voice called in front of Yuffie._

'_Why?' she protested._

'_You're not strong enough'_

'_But I can take them'_

'_No you can't!Now go back to your room!' the voice grew angrier._

'_No I can take them!' she yelled back._

'_I said go back!'_

"I'm not weak!" Yuffie snapped out of her dream from the sound of her own voice. Yuffie turned to hear the sound of pelting rain against the window. It didn't rain a lot in Traverse Town but when it did, it came down by the buckets.

"Man, why do I always have weird dreams when Iget an injury from a heartless?" Yuffie said to herself as she sat up on the bed. Yuffie looked down at Leon's alarm clock next to his bed. The time read 11:46pm "Man, how long have I been asleep for?" as Yuffie questioned her thoughts she got up off the bed and headed towards the bathroom. Just as she reached the handle of the door it opened up before her. She suddenly collided with a body which caused her to loose her balance and hit the floor.

"Owh! Watch where you're go-" Yuffie looked up to see a shirtless Leonwith water soaked skin andonly a towel wrapped around his waist. He looked down on her with a somewhat embarrassed yet straight face. Yuffie's face turned a bright shade of crimson upon looking at the sight, quickly looking away to hide her blushing face.

"Oh, I forgot you were stillhere." Leon stated blankly as he grabbed the pair of trousers from the cabinet near the bathroom.

"…Yeah well…" 'Think you idiot, think!' "It's ah, not like I entered here in the first place! I mean I just woke up here!" Yuffie stammered out, trying to hide her blush from his current appearance also trying to avoid turning back around to have another good look. 'No! Must…keep…mature…thoughts…around him' while Yuffie was fighting with her own subconscious thoughts, Leon returned to the bathroom to get changed.

When Yuffie finally realised that he wasn't behind her anymore she turned towards the bathroom and started to question Leon through the door. "Why am I in your room anyway?"

"Your door was locked and Aerith told me to take you to my room to tend your wounds first, before searching for the spare key" muffled Leon's response through the bathroom door.

Yuffie snickered to herself at his response. 'So you have a devious side after all, Aerith' Yuffie thought to herself as she knew very well that Aerith had a spare key on her nearly all of the time. Yuffie grinned at Aerith's on mischief, as she wasn't known to do it a lot.

Leon re-entered the room dressed in a plain pair of black pants and a white singlet top. He hung up his towel on the bathroom door and turned to look at Yuffie.

"…You 'can' go now, there's no reason for you to stay here since you seem to be able to move around fine now." Leon stated to her with the usual blank expression.

"Oh don't you like my company?" Yuffie pouted her lips making a sad face and sticking her hands on her hips. Much to her disappointment Leon didn't buy it.

"Ok fine I can tell you want to ogle at girly pictures all night its ok I'll go" Yuffie giggled watching Leon's expression change from the usual blank look to the 'god-get-her-out-of-the-room' stare. Yuffie just smiled impishly at him and twirled around towards the door.

"Ohhh you know you love me," Yuffie added to his annoyed expression, sticking her tongue out as she left. Leon only lifted his hand to his head as if an oncoming headache was approaching. He sighed and turned towards his bed where he noticed something left on top of it. It was Yuffie's scarf, one of her favourite yellow ones. Sighing at her forgetfulness he moved it onto the cabinet next to his bed. 'Guess I'll have to give that to her tomorrow', though tomorrow wasn't just going to be the normal day in Traverse Town.

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_AU: Well thats chapter I for you heh, reviews are quite welcome o tell me if I'm going well or crap heh ; , Next Chappie will be done...later...for now hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my 'very' firstfanfic and hope you will continue to read it inlater submitions :D_


	2. The Journey Begins

_AN: Yo Sorry for such a late update..not that alot of people are reading >>;; well hopefully more chapters will get peoples attentiont o Well heres chapter 2, bit of a long one, but hey! better then a short one ;;; Hope you enjoy_

**Chapter II – The Journey Begins**

'Beep beep, beep beep!'

The irritating ringing from the alarm clock caused an occupant in the bed to shift under their sheets. Soon after, a hand appeared from under the sheets and bashed the alarm til it stopped ringing. After the sound had seised ringing the other hand pulled the covers of the bed to the side. Leon lay in bed for a few moments staring at the ceiling. In his thoughts, he went through what he had planned to do in the day ahead of him. A few moments later,he finally decided to sit up on his bed. He rubbed his face with his hands to clear the drowsiness out of his head. As he lowered his hands he looked over to see what time it was. In doing so he noticed a yellow piece of material sitting neatly against his alarm. It was Yuffie's scarf that she had left behind the other day.

'I guess I have to give her scarf back today' He thought to himself as he stared over at the said item. He snapped himself out of his thoughts and pushed himself off the bed. He stood up from his bed with a bare chest and a pair of black sleepwear pants. He rearranged his pants slightly as he headed towards to bathroom to wash up and get dressed.

* * *

"Yuffie" a voice called out to her. 

"… Yeah?" she mumbled her reply under her bed sheets.

"Yuffie wake up! You got to get ready for the trip"

"What trip?" she questioned.

"Remember we're going to go check out Hallow Bastion and see if Sora is ok"

"…We are!" Yuffie's eyes shot wide open and she sat up straight in her bed. Yuffie saw that her sudden movement had slightly shocked Aerith. Yuffie smiled apologetically while hearing Aerith let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, I remember telling you a few days ago, remember?" Aerith said to Yuffie.

"You did?" Yuffie asked yawning as she stretched out her arms and got up off the bed.

"I think you were too busy reading your comics to even notice" Aerith replied to her friend's question, smiling at Yuffie's huffed expression. Aerith was already holding clothes for Yuffie to wear. As Yuffie wandered over towards the bathroom, Aerith stepped towards her and held out her clothes.

"Eh? Oh clothes! Sorry, I'm 'so' not used to waking up early like this. In fact, I don't like waking up early" Yuffie complained as she took the clothes from Aerith.

"I'll be waiting outside with the others ok Yuf?" Aerith told Yuffie as she entered the bathroom. She heard Yuffie's muttering of "Yeah, yeah" as she closed the bathroom door. Aerith smiled at her friends 'friendliness' in the morning. Aerith remembered when she was Yuffie's age; she didn't enjoy early mornings either. Aerith left the room smiling as she remembered other memories from her past.

* * *

Leon exited the bathroom wearing his leather trousers and white singlet top. As he continued to put on the rest of his clothes he noticed Yuffie's scarf again. It was still sitting on the side table next to his bed. Stopping his current movement he walked over to the bedside table and picked up the yellow scarf. It was only a thin scarf, something you would wear for fashion rather then warmth. Of course that's what Yuffie would wear, something more fashionable then warming. Leon folded it up so he could carry it in his pocket. He unzipped one of the pockets on his jacket and placed it in there. Since he thought it would be wiser to carry it in his pocket then be seen carrying around a scarf which obviously wasn't his. 

Leon checked that he had everything with him for the journey ahead. He re-checked his gunblade case to see that he had enough ammo and that the blade of the weapon was in good condition. Since he knew that going back to Hollow Bastion wouldn't be an easy trip.

Leon took one last check around the room making sure he had everything with him. Finally deciding he had everything he turned towards the door and headed out.

"Ah there you are! Come help me load some stuff into the ship" A gruff voice asked to Leon as he closed the door behind him. It was Cid, who was smoking a cigarette, as usual, and holding a crate in his hands.

"Alright, I'll be with you in a second Cid" Leon replied as he headed towards the shipyard just outside Traverse Town's gate. Leon stepped up to Cid's ship and stashed his own luggage inside, then turned to help Cid with loading.

* * *

"Where's my scarf!" Yuffie cried out to herself as she savaged through all of her belongings. 

"Damn it! Where did I put it? …Owh" Yuffie's self-questioning was interrupted by a pain in her back. She lifted her hand up to see if there was anything she could feel on her back, though her action was cut short by a door opening behind her.

"Yuffie! Are you ready? We have to go now!" Aerith exclaimed as she came rushing into her room. Her exasperated look was replaced with a confused one as she scanned the now messy room. "…What did you loose?" Aerith asked as she already knew Yuffie's action towards lost items; tearing down the room until she found it.

"My yellow scarf! I can't find it Aer!" Yuffie cried out making an over exaggerated sad face.

"Well we can find it when we get back, ok? Right now we have to go; Cid and Leon are already on the ship with everything packed and ready. We have to leave soon before it gets to busy!" Aerith told Yuffie while grabbing Yuffie's travelling bag and started to put extra clothes and other items into it.

"But I want my yellow scarf! It's my lucky scarf!" Yuffie whinged as she grabbed some shuriken from her draw.

"Well, I'm afraid we can't waste anymore time Yuffie, I'm 'sure' we'll find it when we get back ok" Aerith said comfortingly to Yuffie. Yuffie just smiled back at Aerith's response and took her bag from Aerith who had finished packing it for her.

"Ok fine, we'll find it when we get back" Yuffie said as she headed towards the door with Aerith. Yuffie cringed as she swung her bag onto her back.

"Are you ok?" Aerith asked as she noticed Yuffie's slight cringe of pain.

"Yeah I'm fine just strained my back in my sleep" Yuffie lied as she closed the door behind Aerith. Aerith smiled warily at her response and continued to walk towards the shipyard with Yuffie.

"About time you two showed up, thought we should leave without ya" Cid called out as he noticed the two girls appear in the shipyard.

"You wouldn't have dared to do that because you know what you would get when you came back" Yuffie exclaimed back at him, pretending to be furiously angry with him. As Yuffie was pretended to beat up Cid, Leon appeared around from behind the ship. Yuffie stopped her actions in a split second upon seeing Leon suddenly appear.

"So are we going to go?" Leon stated as he watched Yuffie with Cid.

"Yeah let's head off, can't keep the heartless wait'n" Cid joked as he heaved himself up into the ship. The others followed his action as they entered Cid's Gummi Ship.

The ship had much improved since their last travels together. There was now a large cockpit, which could hold more then eight people. There was a medical bay and five spare rooms. Yuffie entered one of the spare rooms and threw herself onto the bed, only to realise that the bed was as hard as the ground. She groaned in pain of her new discovery of rock beds.

"You'd think that Cid would put softer beds in the ship but nooo he wants a huge cockpit to act all super" Yuffie said to herself as she rolled slowly off the bed. Yuffie lifted her bag off the floor and started to sort through what she had. Still upset about not finding her favourite yellow scarf, she continued sorting out her belongings.

* * *

"So we're heading towards Hollow Bastion, stopping off at the Coliseum and Halloween town for supplies," Leon repeated Cid's mapping of the journey. 

"Yep that's the way it's sorted out." Cid said snuffing his cigarette into the ground of the airship, only to pick another one from the packet. Leon was amazed how many packets the pilot would go through a day.

"Why are we stopping in Halloween town?" Leon questioned the pilot

"I heard there was a special gummi piece made by some doctor over there that can create a camouflage around a gummi ship!" Cid informed Leon with an overly amount of excitement. Leon nodded slightly in a small attempt to pretend to understand what Cid was ranting about.

"…Where'd you hear that?" Leon questioned slightly curious to Cid's findings.

"Does that really matter? It's a gummi piece!" Cid replied snootily. Leon merely sighed silently and turned towards the exit of the cockpit.

"Oh Leon" the said person stopped in his tracks. "Be prepared to use the artillery, we might need to use them later. The Heartless are being a bitch and just keep multiplying out there. We might have to take some out to make sure the journey is somewhat smooth" Cid said.

"…Ok" Leon nodded in agreement and continued out of the cockpit into the main hallway. While he was walking he shifted his hands into his pockets and felt soft a material. 'Oh yeah, the scarf. I better go re-'

"There you are! Do you mind helping me with this Leon, it appears to be heavier then I thought" a struggling Aerith cut Leon's thoughts short. She appeared to be carrying some sort of case, which to Leon's observation was her clothing bag.

"Why do you bring so much with you?" Leon said taking the bag from Aerith with ease.

"Well, you never know when I might meet…someone." Aerith said meaningfully while looking slightly flushed from carrying the heavy case. Leon was only confused by her response but asked nothing of it.

"So, which room is yours?" Leon asked while stopping half way through the hall in front of a selection of doors.

"Umm…I'm not quite sure." Aerith said. "Let's try this one" she pointed at one of the doors and headed towards it. She opened to find an empty room. "Well guess it's mine now, since no one has taken it yet. You can put the bag on the bed over there" Aerith said while pointing to the bed in the room. The room wasn't very extravagant but designing decorative rooms on a Gummi ship wasn't one of Cid's fortes.

Leon entered the room with the luggage, as he entered the room another door opened behind him and footsteps were heard walking off towards the cockpit.

"Thank you very much Leon" Aerith said bowing slightly with gratitude to Leon. Leon nodded in reply and headed out of the room.

* * *

"Man! You'd think the old geezer would put some colour in this place" Yuffie stated while observing her surroundings as she headed towards the cockpit. The cockpit doors automatically opened as she entered the cockpit. She saw the old pilot sitting at the controls smoking his usual cig. Yuffie sniggered at his expected appearance as she took a seat near the back, beside the window. She began staring out the window, drifting off into thoughts. 

'There are fewer stars out tonight…I remember when I tried to count them all, and would loose count heh…course now I would probably be able to keep track…there's so little left-' Since it was still early in the morning Yuffie's fatigue caught up with her and she slowly drifted off to sleep.

_"Don't stay out for too long!" a mother called out to a young girl running out into the open air._

_"I won't mumma!" the little girl replied. She kept running until she came to a stream, which flowed down into a waterfall that gushed out over the falls situated at the end of the town. On the other side of the stream was a young man with short brown hair sitting under a shady tree. He was reading a book of some kind. The little girl didn't know him very well though would always see him at that tree every time she went out for a walk._

_The little girl thought she might go introduce herself but another person came up behind the young man. She retracted her step and decided to walk on her usual trip to the flower garden that a young woman down the road cared for. She turned back to where the young man was. The person who walked down was now sitting next to him. He looked uncomfortable with the person but seemed at peace at the same time. The little girl didn't think anything of it and continued walking down the track._

_Half way down the path a storm started brewing up in the sky. The little girl decided to hasten her pace to get to the small shack-like house that the flower carer lived in. The girl started to get anxious when the storm was getting stronger. Loud crashes of thunder started bellowing from the clouds along with strikes of lightning up above the tall castle on the top of the falls._

_The little girl finally arrived at the florist's house and anxiously banged on the door to see if anyone was home. She kept banging until someone answered. She started to whimper when the rain started to pour from the skies. She continued banging until finally the door opened up. The little girl lunged onto the young lady and hid her face into the florist's clothes._

_"What are you doing here missy?" the young lady asked harmoniously as if to comfort the frightened child. The girl only whimpered and began a muddled description of her journey. Suddenly the two girls started hearing screams coming from the castle on the top of the falls and the town where the little girl had come from._

_"…it's happening." The young woman muttered under her breath. "We have to go on a little walk now ok, I want you to hold onto my hand and not let go, ok?" She said to the small child softly. Just as she said that people were running past the entrance of her house in a crazed panic. She took the little girl by the hand and headed out onto the pathway down to the edge of the falls where the air shipyard was._

_The little girl didn't understand what was going on she just held onto the florists hand and walkedalong her side. The pace was somewhat faster then what she would normally walk so she was jogging everysecond step in order to keep up beside the lady._

_Just as they were gaining some distance from the florist's house a frightened villager sprinted past them knocking into them both, causing the little girl to loose balance and fall over. The floristbent over to tend the little girl. Just as she didthe villager who had sprinted past soon was running back at them just as petrified as they were when they ran past, though this time the villager was halted to a stop when a dark claw punched through their chest. The villager silently cried out as they soon faded into nothing leaving a crystallised heart which soon faded after him. The little girl and florist stood there paralysed with fear._

_The florist was the first to snap out of it but just as she did she saw one of the creatures edging its way towards them. The creature leaped at them with its claws bared. The florist covered the little girl with her body._

_"Believe in yourself and your heart will bare a light that will protect you" she whispered into the little girl's ear._

"Battle stations everyone! We got some little basterds heading our way and I wont be able to dodge them all" Yuffie was snapped back into reality at Cid's loud announcement on the speaker phone.

Leon's current action of putting his own belongings in his apartment was cut short at the sudden announcement.

"Leon! Hurry the hell up! Get to the nearest shooter! They're coming in fast!" Leon hastened his actions at Cid's order and ran out the door to the shooter seats.

As he was running out he saw Yuffie running towards the other shooter. He could predict Yuffie starting a shooting contest as they got in position. She always seemed to love random mini games. She did it while in the Coliseum as well, though he always prevailed with the contests. This always made Yuffie annoyed at him, though strangely enough she would never stay angry with him for long.

"Ok, I'm in position Cid" Leon announced on the headset he had placed onto his head while entering the shooter seat.

"Same here! Get ready for some sharp shoot'n! You're going down Leon!" Yuffie proclaimed shortly after Leon's announcement. Leon smirked inwardly at his own prediction of Yuffie's actions. Grabbing the joystick of the shooter Leon moved into position.

The heartless ships almost immediately appeared on the scanners. Yuffie was already firing on her side of the ship. Leon soon joined the battlefield as well.

"I've taken down five! Beat that Leon! Oh crap!" Yuffie's boasting interrupted her concentration as a fire hit the ship.

"Yuffie! Stop screwin' around and just shoot the buggars!" Cid yelled out strongly as he was trying to maintain the ships movement.

"Sorry!" Yuffie apologised on the speaker as she maintained her focus again. The heartless ships were significantly increasing on the screen which was starting to make it harder to maintain the ships flight pattern. The inertia of the airship was making Yuffie queasy.

'Man! I though I got over air sickness' Yuffie thought. "I think…I think I'm going to...be sick" she stammered out as little black spots were appearing in her vision.

"Yuffie keep it together we need to get rid of some of the heartless to go into warp drive!" Cid yelled out.

"Was this room always slanted… or is it just me?" Yuffie said out loud.

"Aerith! Go help Yuffie!" Leon spoke out. Yuffie didn't take much notice of what was being said now; she was too busy trying to not barf. She had let go of the joystick and was lying back against the seat trying to calm down her stomach. Aerith soon arrived at her side with a bucket and some water.

"Here drink some of this." Aerith cooed, handing a glass of water to Yuffie and placing a bucket on her legs.

"Thanks Aer" Yuffie said appreciatively. The airship was still being bashed about by the heartless and the mindless cursing over the speaker phone was incomprehensible. Aerith comforted Yuffie as she tried to hold in her stomach.

"Argh! Persistent basterds! Ah! Finally! Ok everyone we're going into the warp drive! Hold on!" Cid called out before the body of the ship was pulled back by the force of the warp engine then shot forward. Soon afterwards the ship came to a stop and there was still.

Yuffie couldn't help but let her self go after the warp engine had seised. Aerith stroked her back as Yuffie was wrenching into the bucket. Aerith saw Leon approaching and shook her head to silently tell him to go away. Leon nodded at her and turned back towards the cockpit.

"So what's the damage?" Leon said as he arrived at the cockpit. His question was answered by a few words and rendition of curses. Leon just folded his arms and watched the crazed up pilot flame around the room muttering about the system frying and trying to find spare parts. "Do you want any hel-?"

"No! You don't know where anything is and it'll be a waste of your time. Dont worry I can fix it!Where are the bloody hell spare parts!" Cid yelled out while rummaging through a clutter of cases situated at the side of the cockpit.

Leon sighed and decided to leave the room to see how everyone else was going. He heard Aerith's voice in one of the rooms so he decided to go check it out. When he arrived at the doorway Yuffie was lying on her bed with a pale complexion. Leon merely stared blankly at her and Aerith.

"Is there something you want Leon?" Aerith questioned him. Leon only blinked at her questioned before finding the words to answer her question.

"Just came to see if everything was ok, since Cid is having…problems" Leon stated with the same expression as before. Yuffie was flushing slightly at Leon's spontaneous kindness. If that's what you could call kindness. For Leon, it was.

"What kind of problems?" Aerith asked slightly anxious.

"Something that he can fix…or so he says" Leon replied folding his arms and leaning against the door. Aerith smirked at his response to what Cid would say about something broken on an air ship. No one criticises Cid's engineering skills unless they plan to have a quick trip to the hospital.

"So we'll be floating around until then" Leon continued still looking at Aerith and Yuffie. There was a small silence before anyone said anything.

"…Anyone up to play some cards?" Yuffie said breaking the silence. She seemed to be mostly recovered now as she sat up carefully on her bed. "You reckon you could grab my cards Leon. They're in the case next to the door." She said to him pointing at a small bag at the door. Leon sighed and bent down to grab the cards.

When Leon came to pick up the cards he noticed thatitwas a packetTriple Triad cards. He remembered playing the game when he was young with his friends. But how did Yuffie know about the game. He thought only people at his school knew about it.

"You just going to sit there staring at the cards or you going to bring them over?" Yuffie interrupted Leon's thoughts.

"…whatever" He replied walking over to the bedside where Yuffie and Aerith were.

"Well I don't know how to play so I'll just watch" Aerith announced as Leon sat on the bed beside Yuffie, leaving a gap to play the cards down on.

"You know how to play?" Yuffie asked Leon with a giddy look. Almost as if she was already winning the game. She handed him a pile of cards to play with.

"Yeah" Leon replied blankly looking through his cards and sorting out the best ones.

"Really? Awesome! I always wanted a worthy challenge" she exclaimed grinning in her usual mischievous way. "Lady's first!" Yuffie said while putting down her first card, it was the Siren card. Leon knew someone who played that card first all the time. He never really thought about it till now.

"Yo, Mr. Blankface it's your turn" Yuffie said waiting impatiently on the other side of the bed. Leon didn't reply and placed a Diablos card to the left of the Siren to take a point.

"Grr! Take this!" Yuffie stated before placing a Leviathan to the left of Diablos. Leon didn't hesitate to place his next card down. Soon the game was playing along with 3 wins to Leon, 1 to Yuffie, with Yuffie loosing a bit more of her sanity in each game.

"Damn it! You're not fair!" Yuffie cried out before whining more about Leon winning another game.

"Now Yuffie, you can't win them all" Aerith said trying to calm down Yuffie. Leon smirked inwardly at Yuffie's useless diversions as she tried helplessly to make him loose his concentration. Ranging from the 'I think I heard Cid call you name!' to the 'Look! it's a flying Cactus!' In the end it was Cid who interrupted the game with a brief statement.

"Well the warp engine is fried for now, but we are close to the Coliseum anyway so we can just rest there" Cid announced pausing briefly afterwards. "What are you three doin' anyway?"

"Cards" the three of them said in synchronisation but all with different tones. Aerith with her joyous tune, Yuffie with her frustrated, annoyed tone and Leon with his neutral tone.

"…righ'…" Cid said confused with everyone's attentiveness in a small card game. "Well better get this baby on the ground then" Cid said wiping his nose in his signature fashion.

"Yeah" everyone murmured back in reply to Cid's message, Cid just walked off shaking his head wondering what was so special about a card game.

"Hah! I've got you now!" Yuffie called out after Leon's last move. "Yeah! Another win for the Yufster"

"Yufster?" Leon and Aerith said looking perplexingly at Yuffie. Yuffie just looked backat them with the same confusion.

"What? … It's a new saying! …" Yuffie replied sweating from the stares of confusion.

"Prepare for land'n kiddos" Cid announced on the speaker phone. After his announcement the ship began to shake with the entry into the planets atmosphere. Aerith propped herself against the wall and sat down holding onto the bed legs to keep herself from being thrown around the room. Leon stayed on the bed, gripping the edge to keep balance. Yuffie sat on the bed thinking Leon wasn't holding onto anything so she thought she would play a game of 'Who could keep balance without holding on to anything'.

"Aren't you going to grip something?" Leon questioned Yuffie who looked like she was concentrating for once in her life. "You do realise that we're going to hit some turbulence" Just as Leon finished talking the airship was rocking up and down.

"Woah" Yuffie cried out when she was flung about with the ships turbulence.

"Ah Yuffie!" Leon yelled out in annoyance as she rocked around the bed with the ship. Leon grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards him to hold her down on the bed. Yuffie flushed red when she felt his actions take place. He had hooked his arm around her own and got her to hold onto the bed by placing his hand on top of her own hand.

Leon didn't seem to be affected by his actions; Yuffie on the other hand was flushing bright red and could feel her face pounding with embarrassment.

When the ship finally came to a stop, Leon detached his arm from Yuffie and stood up and headed to the door.

"Well I'm going to go help Cid with finding airship parts." Leon stated as he turned and left the room. Yuffie and Aerith just looked at each other and shrugged. It was normal for Leon to get to work hastily, so Yuffie and Aerith were used to his abrupt exits.

"Well I think we should go for a walk" Aerith said patting off her dress has she stood up from the ground. Yuffie nodded in responseas she too stood up from the bed. Still red from Leon's actions she grabbed the glass of water on the bed side table and skulled it. Aerith laughed at Yuffie's embarrassing event .

"Oh shut up Aer!" Yuffie said laughing with Aerith.

"You're so cute!" Aerith said giving her a hug.

"Now you're rubbing it in" Yuffie said shrugging Aerith off. Aerith smiled and grabbed Yuffie by the arm and headed out the door, out of the airship and into the open air.

"Let's go have a wander shall we?" Aerith said as both she and Yuffie headed into the Coliseum.

_AN: heheh anyone notice that Triple Triad is the card game in FFVIII? P I went to extreme lengths to get the cards accurate! hahaha ; maybe not 'extreme' >>;;_

_Well I hope your enjoying it sofar. Comments/reviews are much appreciated :DHopefully I can get the next chapter done faster :-\_


	3. Cloudy Skies

**A/N-** Man I haven't updated in MONTHS! heh Sorry guys..well for those diehard fans, if I have any, I'm getting back into it now, I kinda died out of reading fanfiction awhile ago and in doing so died out of my own heh...heh.. So I was re-reading my first few chapters, man I'm sucha n00b at all this, I spotted so many grammatical errors not to mention cheesy parts! heh..heh.. So I'll try to improve as I go along now, I'm trying to get my story back in line. So yeah sorry if plot holes pop out of nowhere heh

**Chapter III – Cloudy Skies **

"Meet the worlds most 'famous' hero of all time! See his strength, agility, speed and splendour up at the Coliseum. Don't miss out!"

A small creature called out from the Coliseum gates. He was the head honcho for organising the events in the Coliseum. Well that's at least what Yuffie believed. She watched him continue his preaching outside the gates before she was forced away by Aerith who was dragging her towards the small group of markets, which were situated further down the path from the Coliseum.

"Now, now Yuffie. We didn't come here to play games with the big boys" Aerith lectured Yuffie as she pulled her away from the Coliseum entrance.

"But I like playing with the big boys!" Yuffie pouted to Aerith. Yuffie pulled Aerith's arm off showing that she'll walk along. Yuffie trudged along side her thinking about fighting in the Coliseum. The last time she competed was when she had to fight by herself in Hades Cup. She thought she'd show off to Leon withher ability to fight by herself. She ended up staying in the lower levels and being beaten down by Sora and his gang. She twisted her ankle during that battle...

_"I told you wouldn't be able to handle it by yourself" Leon interrupted her ramblings of how her trip in battlewas intentional. He sat her down on the bench on the side of the coliseum after helping her out of the coliseum by holding her arm around his neck to take pressure off her foot. _

_"It doesn't hurt that mu-owh!" Yuffie said as Leon slid her shoe off her left foot. Yuffie was surprised she didn't notice him knelt down to her foot. _

_"Could you tell me next time your going to do something like that! That really hurt!" Yuffie wimpered to Leon._

_"Whatever" Leon sighed out."I have to take your stocking off"_

_BeforeYuffie could respond Leon had alreadyreachedup to the top of her stocking and pulled itslowly downher leg, being gentle around her ankle as he slid his hands under the stocking around her calf muscle and ankle. Yuffie's heart was pounding in reaction to Leon's sudden 'movement'. She was still trying to recollect what he just did. Itwasn't normal that Leon just slid his hand down her leg, in fact Leon even touching her wasn't normal._

_"…you're going to have to be off your foot for a few days. I'm going to go get ice, you stay here." Leon announced after investigating Yuffie's injured leg. Yuffie felt she could breathe a little easier when he left to get some ice. 'Did…Did that actually happen or did I just black out the whole time of that? ...If that really did happen…then I think I'm going to injure my ankles more often!' Yuffie snickered at her own thought on the situation. Not too long after did Leon return with some ice. _

_"It's not a lot but its all they could give since there are still lots of patients with injuries coming in from the competition." Leon said when he returned, with what seemed like quite a lot of ice. Yuffie didn't really know why Leon had to explain the whole situation with the ice. It's not like she really cared but the thought that Leon was saying more then 'yeah, whatever' made her happy enough. _

"What are you snickering at?" Aerith questioned when she heard Yuffie giggling about something.

"Oh, it's nothing!" Yuffie said quickly.

"You do realise that when you speak in an evasive tone you're only bringing more attention to your situation." Aerith told Yuffie.

"Yeah, whatever"

"Heh" Aerith smiled as she noticed Yuffie picking up things that Leon would say to avoid conversations.

As the two entered the market area there was huge roar from the Coliseum.

"Man, I want to see what's happening!" whinged Yuffie.

"Oh come on Yuf shopping isn't 'that' bad is it?" Aerith said in response to the whining.

"Well when it lacks things like-"

"Like what?" Aerith questioned puzzled Yuffie stopped mid-sentence. She turned to see what Yuffie had stopped to look at.

"It's not possible!" Yuffie exclaimed. Aerith still being puzzled at what was so amazing tried to look closer at what Yuffie was staring at.

"It's…It's…Materia!" Yuffie yelled with extreme exhilaration sprinting over to the stall that had the large marble like orbs.

"Oh, materia! I haven't seen it in years!" Aerith said finally recognising the spheres. Once they both reached the store Yuffie quickly snatched one up and examined it. The magic inside the marble made a warm glow over her hand as she held it up.

"And soon it'll all be mine nyuk nyuk nyuk" Yuffie said under her breath as she was already plotting her plan of pilfering.

"I hope you're not planning anything stupid" Aerith asked eying her suspiciously. "I quite remember you trying to steal my own collection from my flower house back in Hollow Bastian"

"Of course not Aer, I've grown out of that! I'll be turning 17 soon! I'm not a child anymore!" Yuffie lied as she pocketed one behind her back.

"HEY!" A large man grabbed Yuffie by the arm which had just pocketed the materia. "You better put that back before I take your arm as a replacement!" The man yelled at her.

"Put what back?" Yuffie said trying desperately to sound innocent while struggling to get the man's grip of her arm.

"Yuffie! You didn't!" Aerith said shocked at the man's accusation.

"Heheh its no sweat Aer, he's just delusional" Yuffie said breaking a sweat from her trapped position. Yuffie started to show fear in her face when her struggling to get free was becoming useless

"Why you little bitch!" The man said gripping her arm tighter causing Yuffie to yelp in pain.

"Yuffie!"

* * *

"Where are we going Cid?" Leon questioned the pilot standing confused in front of him. 

"…Where the hell is it?"

"…Don't tell me you're lo-"

"I'm not lost! Look you go on ahead I'll find this place…wherever the hell it is" Cid ordered to Leon. Leon just shrugged it off and turned back towards the markets. As he was walking something caught his eye as he walked along the path. He saw a blonde spiked man walking out of the markets towards the coliseum. Leon recognised him as the man he was teamed up with for the Hades cup. He never really got to know the man during the match because he only ever saw him before they fought. All he knew was that his name was Cloud. So Leon thought of actually confronting the man this time and ask him where he was from, Leon had a feeling he'd met the man briefly in his teenage years.

"What do you want?" The red cloaked man asked Leon as he approached him.

"…I just want to ask you something." Leon said to him. Cloud turned around slowly and stood in front of Leon waiting for the question.

"…Your fighting skills are very different from the people here; you aren't from this world, are you?"

Cloud was surprised by Leon's unexpected question of where he'd come from. A strange feeling inside of him felt it was ok to talk to this man,it wasalmost as if he'd met him before.

"…Your right about one thing…I'm not from here. I ended up here nine years ago after my world was destroyed… destroying half of me with it" He looked down to his claw like hand, clenching and unclenching it.

"…nine years…" Leon repeated. "…my world was attacked nine years ago as well but it wasn't destroyed. This is only something I found out recently. I believed it was gone as well…but it was merely overrun by the heartless…I had lived in Balamb Garden's boarding school. It was near a castle…which was called Hollow Bastion"

"…Hollow Bastion?" Cloud said. "A castle that rose above the falls… I lived in a small village to the west of there." Cloud felt strange talking about his past, but the feeling of returning home, returning to his light over rid his feelings of secrecy.

"…Nibelheim." Leon said finally after a few of moment silence between them. "I went to the mountains there for a training hike once."

"You were that group? …now I recognise you…you were head of the SeeD camp group, Squall Leonhart."

"I left that name a long time ago!" Leon said a little too harshly then he had meant to say it. Cloud didn't seem to be affected by Leon's reaction, knowing that he himself left things behind after he left Hollow Bastion. Leon began to ponder on thoughts that he had long forgotten. The word SeeD, Garden, his true name. 'So much has changed since, Aerith and Yuffie said they came from the West as well. This man…he must be the one Aerith mentions every so often…always waiting for him…I'm always waiting …waiting for someone who will never come back to me…'

"…is there…any one else who was with you?" Cloud asked seeing that Leon wasn't going to ask any more of him. Leon looked up and nodded in response.Cloud knew this man Leon would know ofthe one he seeksand felt he could trust him to deliver a message to her. "Would you mind if you delivered a message… to Aerith" Leon nodded again and waited for Cloud to inform him of this message "…tell her that there is something I need to take care of…my darkness will only be gone once I have dwelt with it in person and I will not return till it has finished…she will…understand" Leon didn't quite understand what Cloud was telling him but would send the message none the less.

"Ahhh!" Leon turned to the scream coming from the markets. 'That was Yuffie! What has she done now?' Leon turned to where Cloud was standing but he was already walking off down the path. Leon knew they'd meet again so he turned and began to run towards where he heard the scream.

"OK! OK! I'll put it back!" Yuffie pleaded with the man holding her arm.

"What makes me believe you will!" The man flamed back at her.

"Please let her go sir! I'll make sure she gives it back! Please just put her down!" Aerith pleaded with the man. The man looked at Aerith then at Yuffie again.

"You're just part of her little scheme! Why should I believe you?" The man said to Aerith. As Leon approached hesaw the commotion and quickly hastened towards the scene.

"Whatever she has taken I'll make sure she gives it back" Leon said confidently causing the man to actually pay attention to his words rather then trying to keep hold of the struggling Yuffie.

"Squall!" Leon twitched at the name and glared at Yuffie.

"You better pray that this man let's you go without us having to stay here for more then is required" He said to Yuffie in an annoyed tone. Yuffie made a nervous smile back at him.

"Oh thank god you're here I was get-"

"Ahhhh! Run for your lives!" Aerith was cut off by a group of people who were running towards them. The crowd sprinted past them and were clumsily knocking over pots and displays in a mad panic. More people soon joined the mad rush and were soon shoving people aside to get in front of them. One such person was shoved into the materia display which knocked the glowing orbs onto the ground. The owner of the shop released Yuffie's arm once this had happened to only pick up the guy who was just pushed into it. Yuffie landed on the ground, lost balance and fell over from the sudden plummet. When she was on the floor she noticed that there was materia scattered around that had been knocked off the stand. 'Nyuk nyuk nyuk'

"Something tells me we should be leaving along with them" Aerith said.

"You don't say?" Leon commented sarcastically.

"Well" Yuffie said "I suggest-we-leave-right-now-ok-bye" Yuffie said quickly before sprinting off down the path.

"…ah…" Leon managed to say before he soon followed after Yuffie, Aerith trailing behind him.

Yuffie was running so fast she thought she was breaking limits. She was taking corners here and there to dodge crowds. In fact she was running so fast she lost track of where she was trying to get to or where she was.

"ahhh crap…wait…isn't the shipyard that way?" Yuffie pointed to her left. "Hmm… well it is now" She said as she continued on with her inaccurate directions hoping it leads to her destination.

Leon turned around to see whereabouts Aerith was behind him. She was trailing a small distance behind him but not too far. He looked up to where the commotion had started and saw a swarm of heartless starting to seep from the coliseum. Though the heartless were being held back by Hercules, the main attraction to the coliseum or at least that's how he was portrayed. Leon also noticed a small shadow standing on the very top of the coliseum. Leon couldn't tell if it was just a heartless or it was actually a person. Whatever it was he wasn't concerned with getting near it. Leon turned back around to see where Yuffie went but realised she wasn't running in front of him any more. 'God, where'd she go? We don't have time to stuff around here! What if she's lost and ends up running towards the enemy rather then the air field. God dam it! She probably has!'

"Where's Yuffie?" Aerith puffed out once she'd caught up with Leon. Leon turned towards her but didn't look at her. He was busy seeing if he could spot Yuffie through one of the market cubicles.

"…Wait, don't tell me…you lost track of her and now your trying to cover it up by finding her before you can answer the question. Am I right?" Aerith said trying to make amusement out of the situation considering it wasn't something to laugh about if Yuffie was lost during a rampage.

"You head to the shipyard and I'll get Yuffie" Leon said annoyed at both Aerith and Yuffie; Aerith for ridiculing him and Yuffie for getting lost. Aerith followed his order and headed towards the shipyard which was down the path to the right.

"Where the hell am I now?" Yuffie said in frustration when coming to another unknown area. It was almost as if she was getting closer to the back of the coliseum rather then the shipyard. Yuffie tried to get her bearings straight by trying to find some sort of map in her bag. She started rummaging through her bag though it was too full of pilfered materia to even see anything. While she was rummaging one of the glowing marbles toppled out of the bag and started to roll off down the path. Yuffie noticed it quickly and chased after it. Once she caught up with it she leapt down to grab the marble off the ground "Oh you ain't escaping my gra-" Yuffie noticed that the materia had rolled next to a man's tall black boot. Yuffie slowly looked up to the looming shadow above her. Once her vision reached the man's face all of her body just seemed to freeze up. The tall dark man glared down at her with insane green eyesand drew up a long blade to her throat.

"You're taking mother's energy; you have the mark of a traitor"

* * *

**A/N- **Oooo Suspence-much? XD heheh yes well I'm trying to get some action goin on so yeh its hard writing fics when I keep changing the story --;; good thing I havnt introduced original characters...yet... Bu anyway For those of you who are interested, I have drawn the scene in which Leon is 'tending' Yuffie's ankle. Just check out my DeviantArt Account and it should be there link is in my profile. Yeah, I know materia is kinda non-existent in KH but yeah I needed to give Yuffie her obsession back, it gets the best of her every time heheheh Well I hope your enjoying it, Next chapter is under way so please be patient with me, I have to re read the chapter several times before I submit nods Reviews are much appreciated :) 


	4. Reminiscences

**_AN-_** _Like Woah I've updated withen a month! Thats an achievement for me! hahaha Iguess I'm trying to keep it up to scratch so I dont fade out again. I've actually spotted plots holes in my story already! hahaha yay! -hits head- Playing KH again kinda does that... but anyway I'm not too sure about some scenes but yeh I hope its alright. I'm trying to keep things as in-character as possible since Leon is very different from Squall, personality-wise. I plan onexplaining how/why he changed during this story... so anyway enjoy chapter 4! Oh and watch out for quotes/scenes that are referencing to something/one_

* * *

**Chapter IV – Reminiscences **

The sunlight beamed off the extensive sword as it was held up to Yuffie's neck.

"Give back mother's energy" The tall man ordered down at Yuffie. Yuffie was in a state of shock and fear to even move let alone say anything to the man. The fact that a blade was drawn up to her neck was threatening enough. All Yuffie could do was whimper quietly.

Yuffie closed her eyes, holding back tears. 'I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die.'

"Hmph! Let me take you to the promised lands." Once saying this he raised his sword above Yuffie as if to execute her on the spot. Yuffie's heart stopped as she looked up to the blade almost blacking out as the made rush of blood ran to her heart in terror, though a sudden clash of metal snapped her out of her blank out.

"Yuffie! Run!" Leon had his gun blade drawn out and had forced the tall dark man away from her by hitting his sword away but Yuffie was still stuck in a trance and didn't take in any of Leon's words.

"Yuffie!" Leon was fretting this time, scared that Yuffie had passed out which would make things harder since he knew that his enemy at hand wasn't just a push over and escaping wouldn't be a simple option. He justthanked God that he got to her in time; he only just arrived around the corner when he saw Yuffie being held down by an extremely dangerous opponent. He moved so fast when he saw her he didn't even remember when he struck the cloaked man back.

"I…I…I can't move Squall, please don't leave me" Yuffie sobbed out, the shock of the moment had caught up with her and she had started to cry. Leon saw how the situation was turning out and just prayed that Cid came with the airship soon.

"You dare get in my way of Mother's power." The cloaked man said to Leon, grabbing his attention again. "You are much a fool" He sneered at Leon. He bent down low to his blade getting ready to strike down the gunblader. Leon gripped his gunblade tighter and kept it low, ready to defend himself and Yuffie.

"Bring it" Leon said just before the dark man swooped towards him. Leon only just caught the man's blade with his own as it struck in from the side. 'He's fast!' Leon said trying hard not to show emotion of shock to throw off his fighting stance. He remained close in front of Yuffie to make sure he could easily return to her side if the man tried to strike her down while he was in battle. Leon found it hard to swipe in an attack because the man would swoop into nothingness then reappear in a new area and attack again. It was alsodifficult because he couldn't use any strategies to get into any good spots because he didn't want to leave Yuffie's side.

As the battle fought on Yuffie wassobbing into her hands. 'I have to get up! But I can't! I feel so useless, Leon's risking his life for me and all I'm doing is sitting here crying. I don't know what to do! What can I do! I don't want to be useless!'

The battle was showing signs of defeat, that being Leon's defeat. Leon couldn't withstand another round of fast blows from the black caped man. The gunblader couldn't comprehend how he was becoming so fatigued by the battle. His pride however, didn't let him give up on the fight that easily, but slowly his focus was starting to tremor with this small lose of focus one of the long swipes whipped him across the stomach, sending him flying backwards knocking down onto the ground, sliding across the dirt and stopping a few feet from Yuffie. Yuffie looked up from her hands to see Leon's bloody mess on the ground next to her. She could see him looking at her looking as if he was trying to tell her to run. The site of Leon in that state made her scared; scared he was actually going to die. Yuffie never saw Leon ever being defeated, she always saw him win battles and only getting minor injuries but this time he was bleeding all over the ground. Yuffie suddenly had the energy to move again and quickly crawled over to his side. She placed a hand on his wound as if to try and stop the bleeding. Leon was slowly losing focus in his eyes. She turned to where the man who had made him like this and saw him standing right above her. This time however Yuffie had intense rage in her eyes and glared straight into the darker mans green eyes.

"You… You won't get away with this!" Yuffie trembled out. As saying this the materia in her bag started to react to her rage and created a magical aura around her self and Leon. The materia almost had a mind of its own and let out a giant whip of magic and struck down the cloaked man, knocking him off his feet and into the market stand behind him. Yuffie didn't even think it was she who made the attack. It happened so fast that Yuffie couldn't even remember what had happened. Whatever it was it left Yuffie in a much drained status.

"Hey kid! Quick! Get on board!" Yuffie gave a dazed up look to see Cid hanging out the side of the air ship. He shouted out something to someone else inside the airship, most likely Aerith to come and help the two of them quickly. Cid grabbed a joystick that he had made to use the airship controls without being in the cockpit. He brought the airship low to the ground causing the markets to blow back and forth. Cid jumped out and lifted Leon onto the ship. Aerith jumped down and picked up Yuffie as well as her bag and brought her onto the ship. Once on the airship the doors slowly started to close up behind them. Aerith turned back looking through the doors to the scene looking at the crashed-in market stand. Giving it a worried look she looked out to the coliseum and saw a red cloaked man standing outside the gate. By the time she saw him the doors had closed off her view.

"What the hell was he doing there!" Cid said to no one in particular, heaving Leon onto the nearest bed. Aerith followed close behind with Yuffie in her arms. Yuffie was stuck in a half dazed state and couldn't make out what she could see or hear. All she could remember was being put on the bed next to where Leon was and Aerith placing her hand on her head as if to coon to her sleep.

* * *

Some turbulence in the airship shook Yuffie awake from her resting state. It took her a few moments to recognise where she was and how she got there. 

'Oh yeah that scary cloaked man came… Squall…' "Squall!" She turned from her bed to see Leon on the opposite bed next to her own. He had been stripped down to just his leather trousers, his bare chest had bandages wrapped around his torso. Parts of the bandages had blood seeping through in small patches. Yuffie hopped off her bed with a bit too much energy, forgetting she had just awoken from a long sleep and she lost balance causing herself to fall forwards onto Leon's bed. She barely missed putting her hands right on top of his wound. They hadlanded right on the edge of them, her head nearly landing on top of him.

'God you trying to kill him again'

'Ah shut up stupid subconscience.' Yuffie said to herself. After holding her position of balance over Leon a few more secondsshe finallystraightened up and stood over him. She couldn't help but stare at his sleeping figure. She'd never seen him asleep before, though it wasn't her first time seeing him shirtless. The first time was a little less grim looking. Yuffie noticed he had a few other scars on his chest now that she was close enough to see it clearly. The only one she really saw most of was the one on his face, which he'd never tell how he got it. He moved slightly in his slumber causing Yuffie to stop moving and breathing hoping if she didn't move he wont see her if he woke up. 'Yeah, great theory there' She hit herself subconsciously and let out a sigh of relief when he didn't awake.

'I wonder what he's dreaming off…'

"_Could Squall Leonhart, Student ID. 25693. Please come to head office." An announcement spoke over head. A young man looked up to the message and rolled his eyes in acknowledgement. He stood up from his spot on the ground and flicked his fringe back onto his short cut brown hair._

_Making his way to an elevator situated in the middle of the school grounds he saw a tall, blonde teenaged girl heading in the same direction. _

"_Are you being called to the head's office as well?"_

"_When am I not?" He replied. She laughed at his response._

"_Yeah, it's the sad truth now, isn't it?"_

"…_wh-"_

"'_Whatever'" she said before he could. He shot her a frown at her mimicking. "You're still as predictable as ever Squall"_

"…_whatever, and even if I am so reliable why are you heading to the head master's office Quistis?" Squall questioned._

"_I really don't know…but-" by the time she had started her next sentenced they had arrived at the head master's office. Squall had turned to Quistis waiting for the continuation of her sentence but Quistis had already walked in front of him and saluted the Head Master. He caught up behind her and saluted as well. _

"_Ah! Punctual as always" Cid said as he noticed them enter the room and salute. "Well I guess you're both wondering why I've summoned you here and something tells me you might already have a hint." The two of them returned a look of understanding to the head master. As he said this more people entered the room. A spunky blonde haired male with a tattoo on his face, a young man with a cowboy hat and a youthful girl wearing a yellow one piece entered the room. "Ah so you've all made it here on time for my briefing, that's good"_

"_Anything for the boss" the man dressed similar to a westerncowboy said._

"_Yes, well, on to the point of the matter. I have just been urgently informed that the sorceress Ultimecia and Maleficent are working together in a scheme that will put not only us in jeopardy but this whole world. As we have already gathered Ultimecia is still trying to master Time Compression. Our section has been ordered by the King to take down Ultimecia while he gets another section to deal with Maleficent. So our objective is to find and obliterate Ultimecia's plan of obtaining Time Compression which could warp us all into different times and god only knows what else it could do."_

_The group of students just stood stunned at the newly revealed information. They had only just started persuing Ultimecia, but now they have to deal with Maleficent as well. The spunky blonde was the first to break the ice._

"_So you want us to do the impossible?" He said with an exaggerated hand movement with his hands. _

"_Well it's not impossible if we know where to go." The students responded with a confused look. The head master chuckled at their expressions. "Ok, maybe that was a bit vague. Along with the information I was given there was a location map attached and what is scary about the information is that Ultimecia is very close to where this school is." _

"_What! That's crazy!" The girl with the yellow one-piece dress gasped._

"_Crazy as it sounds, it is true. The challenging part is getting there" The head master responded._

"_What do we have to do, sir?" Squall finally spoke, wishing to get to task straight away._

"_Well…we don't really know. It's an area which is magically sealed off and is, well still being analysed."_

'_So what are you expecting us to do? Walk up to it and knock?' Squall thought to himself, growing impatient with his head master's leisurely way of explaining situations._

"_So until further notice I suggest you all be ready to dive into a battle at any time. SeeD squad dismissed." The group of students exited the office and headed off in their separate ways from the elevator._

'_Was there even a point to that meeting? All I learned was our school was selected to do some dirty work for the King, who I still suspect is the core reason why things are getting out of control. I mean the man spends more time on his projects then he does anything to help the world.' _

"_Deep in thought again Squall?" The said man turned around to see who was talking to him._

"…Deep in thought most likely" Leon opened his eyes to a familiar voice. "Holy crap!" the figure speaking stumbled backwards off the bed in which he was laying. "Owww damn it! I swear Cid needs carpet not metal flooring! Jezz! Gonna get a bruise on my arse now"

Leon looked down off the bed to see Yuffie sitting on the floor rubbing her backside. He raised an eyebrow on how she made the sudden fall but knowing Yuffie she was probably doing something daft. He tried to sit up in bed but forgot he had a fresh wound across his abdomen; he groaned in pain and fell back down onto the bed.

"You really shouldn't do that; it would probably make it worse." Yuffie said once she got up off the floor.

"No really?" Leon added sarcastically.

"Yeah!" she returned with equal sarcasm. There was a slight stare off on who would comment first but was interrupted when Aerith opened up the door to the room.

"Oh Yuffie! You're up! Thank goodness! Oh and you too Leon. Good, good! I've been so worried!" Aerith said ecstatically about their recovery. "Your wound might take awhile to heal Leon, so don't put pressure on it" as she noticed more blood seeping through the material. "It needs to be re-bandaged again…"

"Again?" Yuffie said confused.

"Yes, you two have been out for a few days now." Aerith said walking towards Leon's bandages.

"You're kidding!" Yuffie exclaimed. Leon seemed surprised as well.

"Your wound was very deep Leon. I had to use more then just magic to heal it" Aerith said while undoing the bandages. "…though now that I'm seeing it again it's starting to heal up, I should be able to cure it faster now." She saidin relief, conjuring up a cure spell to help the healing process. The majority of the wound healed over with the spell,only leaving only a slightly deep cut. "That should do Aerith; I can take care of it from here."

"Are you sure?" Aerith asked him slightly apprehensive.

"Yes" Leon said sitting up on the bed.

"Ok, Leon I can understand being knocked out but why was I in a coma?" Yuffie said interrupting the healing scene. She was still trying to remember how she even got into it.

"Well…I…don't know. That's why I was so worried." Aerith said anxiously. Yuffie just stood there trying to think of what had happened but all she remembers was Leon passing out in a bloody mess.

"Halloween Town is a few hours away now kiddos, Prepare for some turbulence." Cid announced on speaker phone.

"Halloween Town! Oooh! I've always wanted to go there Sora told me a bit about it! It sounds so trippy! ...Though he said you need to disguise yourself as one of them." Yuffie said pondering how to disguise herself.

"Heh well lucky for us I learnt a spell off Merlin before leaving, I thought it would be some fun also" Aerith said smiling.

"Ohhh yeah! This is gonna be kick arse!" Yuffie said completely forgetting she was pondering on what had happened before. Leon just sighed at her short attention span of concentrating on something. That or he was just comparing it to himself, who pondered too much on simple maters, though was it really just a simple mater?

"Yo Leon you gonna put a shirt on or are you gonna walk around topless in town?" Yuffie teased pointing at his bare chest even though she would prefer him shirtless.

"I wasn't planning to" He replied swinging his legs around off the bed. "Well if you don't mind I'd like to get changed…this is the room I put my belongings in after all" Leon said looking at Yuffie and Aerith.

"Oh sorry, I'll be in the cockpit with Cid then" Aerith said leaving Yuffie behind with Leon.

"…um…" Leon looked over to Yuffie who had her face to the ground.

"What?" he asked.

"…I'm sorry…" Yuffie said timidly, looking up at Leon slightly. Leon got up from the bed and walked over to Yuffie. Yuffie wasn't expecting him to walk right over to him and started to flush redwhen she could sense he was very close to her. From where she had her head, Yuffie onlysaw his slightly deep wound across his stomachand the top of his leather pants which were hanging from his hips.

"Well we're both alive, aren't we? So don't worry about it. We both know we didn't expect that outcome so don't get down about it." He said placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Yuffie couldn't believe the words that just flew out of Leon's mouth that second. 'Squall? The comforter? Now I definitely know the world is ending…and is that his hand on my shoulder?' Leon raised his hand from her shoulder and turned around to get a change of shirt out of his luggage.

"Yeah I guess your right I mean if it's not like I purposely dropped my mat- MY MATERIA!" Yuffie suddenly realised she had a bag stuffed full of pilferedmateria and ran out of Leon's room to see if it was brought on board the ship.

Leon had turned his head at the sudden exclamation of the word 'materia' and only just saw Yuffie exit his room. He sighed at her sudden action. 'That girl has a one tracked mind.'

* * *

_**AN-** To Halloween Town mweheheh XD I've actually drawn their costumes, so yesh some of you might know already what they will look like. Oh,with the whole Leon conforting thing, I thought he would do something like that, since he does kind of'comfort' Sora in the game to go find his friends so yehhh. Oh and the part with Selphie being there will all get explained/warped later on -nod- Well on to the next Chapter! Halloween Town! Time for some fun! XD_


	5. Trick or Treat?

_AN- Hey, don't fret I havn't forgotten about the fic again heh, Just been editing it over and over,I'm still not real happy withthis chapterbut maybe its just the setting. Got to get them to scurry along to their main location, but hey! a little bit of sidetracking is still good. Still waiting for KH2 in my country. I've been trying to avoid as many spoilers as possible..prooving difficult -sigh- S-E Europe is teh gay._

* * *

**Chapter V – Trick or Treat?**

A small thud onto the ground signalled to Yuffie they had finally landed in Halloween Town. She got up and ran over to the door, eager to get out and check out their new location.

"Come on, come on! Open the door!" Yuffie said to Cid as he walked out from the cockpit.

"Why don't you just open it yourself? Jezz" Cid said shaking his head as he walked off down to one of the rooms, passing Aerith on the way.

"Oh wait Yuffie! I got to put the spell on you first, otherwise …well actually I have no idea what would happen to you if I didn't." Aerith called out to Yuffie, questioning the thought of what 'would' happen without a disguise on.

"Oh yeah the spell! Hahah I forgot about that heh" Yuffie said forgetfully.

"Ok hang on; let me try it out on myself first." Aerith said as she put her bag down and put her arms out in front of her. She muttered some words under her breath and a black smoke appeared out of no where and engulfed Aerith, it soon was sucked away into nothingness.

Aerith stood in front of Yuffie with an extreme pale complexion as if she had been dead for over a month. Her dress was ragged and covered with moss looking like she had drowned. She also had a large gash showing on her belly. Her hair was undone and had bits of sea weed stuck in it.

"Holy shit! Aer…I think you're going to give me nightmares!" Yuffie said freaking out at the new look that Aerith had conjured up.

"Heh sorry …something about this feels…funny" Aerith said perplexed.

"What the hell?" Leon exclaimed as he entered the room which they were in. His expression was priceless; Yuffie had just seen him come in totally unaware and just pause in utter shock. Yuffie burst out laughing as she pointed out his reaction.

"Hahah ah man that reaction was classic! If only I had a camera! Hahah" Yuffie laughed out at Leon.

"Yeah and so was yours, I thought you had soiled yourself." Leon counteracted, smirking slightly as Yuffie made a big huffing face.

"Ok Yuffie it's your turn" Aerith said walking towards her.

"Eeep! I mean…yeah…sorry, I'm still not used to your ah… appearance yet Aer…its freaking me out!" Yuffie said laughing nervously at her response.

"Do I really look that scary?" she asked them both.

"SWEET JEZUZ WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT!" Cid yelled out as he entered the door behind Leon, dropping his cigarette from his mouth.

"Does that answer your question?" Leon said pointing back towards Cid with his thumb.

"Maybe I got the spell wrong?" Aerith said anxiously.

"Nope I think you got it pretty damn good if you ask me" Cid said recovering from his half heart attack, extinguishing his cigarette on the floor.

"Well time to see what Yuffie turns into" Aerith said putting her arms out in front of her facing Yuffie. "Don't move ok Yuf?"

"Sure, sure" Yuffie said sticking her hands on her hips and nodding her head. Before she knew it the black smoke that once covered Aerith soon enveloped her. She closed her eyes as it enclosed around her. She could feel her clothes change; it was a strange and maybe even slightly enjoyable feeling. When she opened her eyes again she looked at everyone's reaction to her new appearance. Aerith was giggling, Leon had his eyebrow raised and Cid just shook his head.

"Well …how is it?" Yuffie asked apprehensively, worried she might look like a complete tool.

"Why don't you go look in the mirror?" Leon suggested nodding his head backwards to the rooms.

"Smart thinking Mr-know-it-all-Squall!" Yuffie said deviously running past them to one of the bathrooms.

Yuffie was wide eyed with excitement at her new image. She couldn't help but giggle insanely at her new manifestation. Yuffie was adorned with black shorts equipped with a chained belt around her waist. Her top was a red boob tube top with punk-like buckles crossing over it. Her gloves covering her fishnets were black and cut to her wrists. Her stockings were now black and white striped down to her shoes which were small buckled black shoes with a pair of small wings on the ankles. To top it off she had a petite pair of red horns on her head, a pair of small demon wings on her back and long whipping devil tail.

"This is so freaking cool!" Yuffie announced out from the bathroom. She ran out to them after checking herself out a few more times in the mirror. "This is the best outfit ever! Can I keep it? Can I! Can I?" Yuffie said twirling around to see what her tail looked like when she spun around.

"Well I'm not sure if the spell works outside this world but…I guess so?" Aerith said uncertain with her statement. Yuffie let out a cheer and did a little dance on the spot.

"I think it suits you…being a pickpocket and all" Leon said looking her up and down.

"Oh yeah well don't tempt me to steal something of yours" She said poking her tongue out at him.

"Oh, is that a threat?" Leon said back.

"You bet it is!" Yuffie said pointing at him accusingly.

"I highly doubt you'd get anywhere near my stuff." He said looking at Aerith as if to signal her to hurry up with the costuming show. Yuffie just laughed to his response thinking up something she could pilfer from him.

"Now 'this' will be interesting!" Yuffie said as she saw Aerith walking over to Leon to cast the spell on him. Yuffie wondered what Leon would turn into, she giggled at some examples in her head. When she had stopped giggling she looked over to see Leon transformed into his new attire. Yuffie just stood mouth gaped at his new look.

Leon was now standing shirtless with a mane of hair neatly draped across his upper chest, shoulders and down to his lower abs. His leather pants were shredded in random places and his gloves were ripped open by claw-like hands. He also had a pair of wolf like fangs protruding from his mouth and his eyes were a nightglow shade of yellow.

Leon looked down at his hands and could only imagine what he looked like. He looked over to the others and saw they were all stunned as they have all been at everyone's new appearance.

"…let me guess…I'm a werewolf?" Leon said to them.

"A really hot one not to mention" Yuffie added grinning devilishly. 'Did I just say that out loud…?' Yuffie thought. "I mean… with all that fur…and stuff…it'd be…hot…?" 'Just keep digging the hole, its ok! I think we've hit the epicentre of the planet now'

Everyone just blinked at Yuffie's muttering, wondering whether the costume was turning her insane.

"Right…well this is awkward heh…" Yuffie said scratching the back of her head. "Talk about a tough crowd. Man my jokes aren't coming out well today." She continued trying to cover her slip up as a joke.

"Right…" Leon said not completely understanding what she was going on about. He thought he would go see what he looked like in the mirror out of pure curiosity. Yuffie guessed where he was going and followed behind him.Yuffie noticed that even though he was covered in a long mane of hair his well toned body was still very well distinguished. She grinned deviously behind him as she followed him along to the bathroom. Leon didn't say much when he got to the mirror; he just stared at his appearance. Yuffie bobbed around beside him, checking him out as well as herself. The costume had given her some sort of ego boost and Yuffie couldn't decide if she liked it or hated it.

"Maybe I should leave you and the mirror alone for awhile" Leon said noticing her glancing.

"Ah shut up! I know your enjoying it" Yuffie said teasingly.

Leon just sighed and brushed it off with his accustomed response; "Whatever".

"Ooo You got fangs too! Neato!" Yuffie said leaning closer to Leon to get a better look. Leon hadn't noticed he had fangs yet till Yuffie had pointed them out. He had thought something wasn't right when his teeth when he talked.

"Hahah that spell sure knows its detail" said Yuffie still looking at his teeth "You even have yellow eyes…" Yuffie drifted off her sentence when she looked into his eyes. Leon just looked straight back at her. For a few moments there was just silence but it was interrupted when Cid called out to them to hurry up.

Yuffie snapped out of her trance and blushed slightly at the thought of them locking eyes. 'My God, I've even become more sensitive to everything I do. Have I been degraded of something?' Yuffie thought to herself at her stupid reaction to something so small. 'Your like some giddy little school girl who hasn't seen a man before I mean jezz get a grip! It's not like he was undressing you with his eyes…wait what'd I just-' Yuffie's thoughts were cut short when she entered back into the room where Aerith and Cid were waiting. Cid now had the spell cast on him this time. Yuffie just cracked up laughing when she saw him. Leon couldn't help but let out a small snigger.

Cid had a giant bolt through his neck and was decked up in tin can styled clothes, appearing like a Frankenstein look-alike. Cid just stood there in frustration with how he appeared. Cussing under his breath he stalked off towards the exit door of the airship.

"Don't worry Cid you'll feel right at home when you go into town" Yuffie said strutting up behind him to pat him on the back.

"Ah shudup! You little weasel" Cid muttered as he pressed the release lock to the door. Yuffie giggled at his obvious response.

"Another world-wide adventure with the Yuffie team!" Yuffie announced proudly with her hands on her hips standing as the door opened up before her.

"Since when were we under your leadership?" Leon said as he walked towards the door.

"Ever since you turned into a shaggy dog" Yuffie said smirking and pointing at him.

"I'm a wolf" Leon corrected.

"Woah! Down boy" Yuffie teased back at him.

"Heheh I wouldn't want to annoy him Yuf, he might bite you" Aerith jested.

"That 'would' be a tragedy now, wouldn't it?" Leon said.

"I think I would lov-ah-loathe it!" Yuffie said, subconsciously hitting her self repetitively on the head. 'Shit, shit, shit! What the hell with me lately! Since when did I just speak my mind about my feelings? This costume is causing me more embarrassment then when I fell down the stairs in front of that huge crowd of people.'

"…right, well I'm going ahead now" Leon said walking past Yuffie on the way.

"Yuf, you ok? You're acting…very…strange…from normal" Aerith said quietly to Yuffie.

"You mean I'm strange other times?" She responded not answering the question.

"Well …you are a bit eccentric at times" Aerith clarified.

"Yeah…well no point worrying about it now! There's a town to pilfer! I mean…investigate…yeah hehehe" Yuffie said laughing nervously as Aerith eyed her irritably.

"Don't think I didn't see your little stash of materia Yuffie" Aerith said sternly. "I thought you kicked that habit"

"I did… but it was materia!" Yuffie said trying to gain some trust in Aerith with her bad habit. Aerith just stuck her hands on her hips and gave her a stern look.

"I don't want to see you do it again ok?" Aerith said conclusively.

"…ok" Yuffie responded quietly, feeling slightly downhearted from Aerith's scorning.

"Well the boys are waiting for us, better get on with leading your team" Aerith suggested trying to lift the spirits again.

"Heheh yeah your right!" Yuffie said recovering fast.

"You can run along ahead, I'll catch up behind." Aerith said knowing Yuffie would want to be in the front of the group with Leon. Yuffie smiled in return and ran off towards Leon and Cid.

"Oh god, it comes" Cid said hearing Yuffie galloping up behind them.

"Hi guys!" Yuffie said pouncing in between them both. They responded with a small grunt.

"You know you don't have to be-"

"Shh!" Leon interrupted her, stopping in his spot. Both Cid and Yuffie stopped as well. "There's…something out th-"

"Boo!" A tall, lanky skeleton appeared out of nowhere and jumped out in front of them. Yuffie screamed and latched herself onto Leon.

"Ahhahaha oh it has been awhile since I have had the pleasure of scaring new company" The skeleton in front of them said joyously.

"Fucking crazy town people" Cid muttered, trying to maintain a steady rhythm in his heart.

"Is it gone yet?" Yuffie said into Leon's chest. Not really realising she had attached herself so close to him.

"No…he isn't going to hurt you Yuffie …" Leon said calmly. "Please…feel free to detach yourself" Leon said, hoping she would do so soon since she was pulling half his mane down making him very unbalanced.

"Oh!" Yuffie stuttered out, instantly letting go off him. "Sorry bout that heh" Yuffie said embarrassed that she was ordered 'off' Leon. 'Since when was I even 'on' him?' Yuffie thought.

"I just love your clothes. Did you just only arrive in town? I would always know if there was new company here, how long do you plan to stay? I hope you will stay for our Halloween, your new looks could be just what I need!" the skeleton said. The group of them just blinked blankly at him. "Oh where are my manners. I am the Pumpkin King, Jack Skellington" He bowed kindly to them.

"Oh! I'm the world's greatest ninja, Yuffie. This is Toto, I mean Leon, the tin can over there is Cid and-" Yuffie turned to see where Aerith was. "Where's Aerith?" Yuffie wondered.

"Wasn't she with you?" Leon asked.

"Well yeah, she was right behind me..." Yuffie replied.

"I'm right here." Aerith said causing Yuffie to jump again and turn to see Aerith with another lady. She looked like a rag doll, sewn together in sections.

"Bloody hell! Don't do that!" Yuffie said clutching her heart from the shock of losing Aerith within the first five minutes of their arrival, plus her spontaneous appearance. Not to mention her freaky attire.

"Sorry about that, I met this nice lady on the way here and well I thought it would be rude for me to leave without introducing myself. You know?" Aerith explained. They all just sighed at her response.

"Ah! Sally, there you are! Dr. Finkelstein is looking for you" Jack said. For someone so bony he was always in an upbeat mood.

"Yes, I thought he would be…" Sally said looking slightly troubled.

"Is there something wrong?" Aerith asked.

"No, no I'm fine." She responded smiling slightly at them. "Well I better go see him then."

"Can we come?" Yuffie asked.

"Oh, of course! The doctor is such a great man!" Jack said totally oblivious to Sally's reaction from before.

"This isn't going to be long visit, remember Yuffie" Leon said to her.

"Yeah, yeah" Yuffie said waving it off as they followed Jack and Sally up a large thin stair case.

"Doctor? I have some new friends I would like you to meet! They're absolutely fascinating!" Jack called out once they entered the building.

"Really?" a small man in a wheel chair said appearing behind the door. "Let's have a look then" He made his way closer towards the group. "Interesting, very interesting" he said flipping his head cap open and scratching his brain.

"Eeep" Yuffie squeaked out in reaction to this. "That's just frekin weird" she announced a bit too loudly.

"Aren't they just exquisite?" Jack exclaimed cheerfully. "I just would 'love' them to be in my next Halloween!"

"Oh Jack I don't think they can stay for long" Sally said to Jack.

"Oh? But they only just arrived! Surely they can stay for Halloween!" he replied back.

"When exactly 'is' Halloween?" Leon asked.

"It's at the end of this week! I'm getting everything prepared for the big event!" Jack proclaimed, waving his arms ceremoniously with his words.

"Really! We're staying!" Yuffie announced without second question.

"I knew this would happen" Leon said to himself bringing his hand to his head.

"Awww you getting fleas already Leon?" Yuffie said noticing his reaction to her exclamation of their staying.

"You know we have to be getting to Hollow Bastion, we can't stay for long" Leon explained getting slightly annoyed at the situation.

"I don't think a few days rest will cause any grief." Aerith said sensing an argument approaching. "Besides its Thursday, Halloween is tomorrow, right Jack?"

"Right you are!" he replied.

"Fine. We'll stay but only till Friday! We leave after the event." Leon said before leaving the laboratory .

"What's up his arse" Yuffie said once he left.

"You, for one thing" Cid said gruffly exiting as well.

"Whoa! Is it like guy PMS week or something?" Yuffie said. "I mean what's the rush to get back?" There was a small silence before Aerith answered her question.

"Well if our world has been recovered, there may be more Ansem Reports for us to find. Plus it would be nice to see home again, wouldn't it?" Aerith said to her.

"Oh yeah…home…" Yuffie said trailing off. 'Maybe Leon really wants to see home? Jezz now I've got on his bad foot again. Good one Yuffie! How are you supposed to get the guy to like you if you keep pissing him off? ...But he makes the best reactions! … I'm falling for a 25 year old… man I fall for the wrong guys.'

"This Ansem you speak of, where does he reside?" The doctor spoke up.

"Oh… umm not…around here, in another…country…" Aerith said completely unaware that the doctor was listening to their conversation.

"Hmmm this report I've found has exclusive notes on the heartless" the doctor said taking out some old sheets of paper. Aerith and Yuffie knew straight away that it was one of Ansem's reports. "This wouldn't happen to be one of those reports would it?"

"Yeah! It is!" Yuffie said approaching the doctor and reaching out to take the papers from him.

"Ah uh!" the doctor said pulling back the papers out of her reach. "These documents have very precious information. I won't just hand it out to some outsider!" Yuffie took a step back from him.

"What? Why you crazy frecking son of a-"

"Yuffie, calm down. We'll find other reports. He can have this one." Aerith said interrupting Yuffie. "Come on, let's go find the guys." Taking Yuffie by the arm she gently pulled her towards the door.

"Shall see you tomorrow then friends?" Jack said still completely oblivious again to what just happened.

"Yes, definitely." Yuffie said waving them off as they exited. "Man that frekin scientist is annoying! I swear he's as bad as that freaky scientist from Hollow Bastion!"

"Heh you sure find it easy to put people on your black list" Aerith said in response to her ranting.

"You know me too well" Yuffie said playfully. "I wonder where the boys have gone."

"Who knows?" Aerith responded. They walked out from the gates and headed towards the fountain. As they walked out three heads appeared from behind the wall from the scientist's house.

"Did they say a report?"

"That has information on the heartless?"

"This is something we gotta get!" They said separately, giggling maliciously. All three went back into hiding in the darkness faster then they appeared.

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The group of them decided to stay in their gummi ship since the town didn't have any suitable places for them to stay. Cid went to review the airships status, Aerith spent most of her time cleaning the airships bedrooms, Leon read a novel and Yuffie checked out her materia. 

"Aerrrr" Yuffie droned out. A faint call of 'yes' was heard from one of the rooms. "When are we going into town for Halloween?"

"In about half an hour, why?" Aerith said emerging into the room Yuffie was situated in.

"Just wondering…" she replied inspecting one of her materia's. "...How many reports have we given to Sora?" Yuffie asked.

"Only a few, he gave me some that he had found since he couldn't read the writing very well. He asked me to translate it for him."

"heheh he can't read it heheh" Yuffie giggled.

"Why do you ask? …you aren't still thinking about that report the scientist has, are you?" Aerith said almost predicting Yuffie's plan.

"What makes you think that?" Yuffie said in an unconvincing tone. Aerith did her accustomed hands on her hips and gruff look to Yuffie.

"I let you get away with getting your materia but stealing from a old scientist is completely off scale." Aerith lectured.

"What made you think I was going to steal it? …it's more like long term borrowing…" Yuffie replied trying to sound innocent. Aerith gave her a long stare before Yuffie gave in. "Fine, fine I won't steal it! Jezz Aer since when did you become the grumpy one, I thought that was Cid's job"

"I'm sorry Yuffie; I just don't want you to get in any more trouble. I mean you were out for three days after the incident at the Coliseum" Aerith said anxiously.

"I know…" said Yuffie, unsure if she should be worried about her black out or not.

"Well, let's go wake up the boys and get ready to head out to town." Aerith said ushering Yuffie out of her room. Aerith said she would go get Cid from the store room, leaving Yuffie to get Leon. She found him on one of the seats in the cockpit with a book on his chest, snoozing peacefully.

'Awww he looks so peaceful…shame I arrived' Yuffie thought grinning. She walked in front of him and stuck her hands on her hips. "Oie! Squall! Rise and shine sleeping beauty." Leon's eyes shot awake and stared straight at Yuffie.

"How many times must I remind you not to-"

"Call me Squall?" Yuffie finished, still grinning at his reaction. Leon stood up from his seat, standing right in front of Yuffie.

"Do you mind moving, I need to get my stuff." Leon said monotonously. When Yuffie didn't obey his instruction he picked her up from the shoulders with ease and shifted her to the side. Leon then walked off towards his room.

'Well that went well' Yuffie thought hitting herself on the head.

"Did you… just hit yourself in the head?" Leon said. Yuffie didn't realise he would actually see her do that.

"Err…I just forgot ah…something I was supposed to do and-I'm-gonna-go-now-bye" Yuffie saidquickly,embarrassed at Leon seeing her smack herself in the head. She sprinted out of the room and ran into Aerith.

"Woah! You ok Yuf?" She said steadying both herself and Yuffie.

"Yeah I just made a dickhead of myself again, its all good." Yuffie replied still embarrassed about what had just happened.

"What happened?" she asked. Yuffie explained to Aerith what had just occurred. As Yuffie expected she started to giggle at her incident.

"Aww Yuf you're so cute when you're all caught in the moment." Aerith said nudging Yuffie. This only made Yuffie redder with embarrassment.

"Would you knock it off! You're making it worse!" Yuffie exclaimed. Trying to stop Aerith's childish nudging.

"Hello Leon" Aerith said causing Yuffie to stop her bickering and spinaround to see where he was. Leon was standing at the door in which Yuffie had just exited.

"We'll head off now" Leon said grabbing his gunblade and swinging it onto his back.

"Why are you bringing that?" Yuffie questioned.

"It's part of the attire" Leon said bluntly.

"In that case I'm bringing my shuriken" Yuffie said in return.

"Whatever" Leon shrugged back.

As soon as they all gathered they set off into town. The music and celebrations had already started and the town was bustling with monstrous-looking people.

"You made it! Excellent, excellent!" Jack said appearing from no where.

"Yeah! Have we missed any?" Yuffie said since no one else was speaking up.

"No, of course not. It's only just begun!" Jack said excitably. They followed Jack to the centre of the town where there was a large green water feature. Creatures would point out their outfits and pass appreciative comments to them, as the celebration went on Yuffie eyed out the scientist's lab. 'I have to get that report, even if Aerith said I shouldn't, that report is more important to us then it is to that freaky scientist.' Since the area was crowded Yuffie found it easy to sneak off towards the lab. She slipped in through one of the side windows and crept along the walls of the room.

'Where would that crazy frekin scientist keep this thing…hmmm' Yuffie thought when she was scanning the room. 'Ah! Maybe this is it?' she walked over to a slanted table with a light attached to the top. 'This has to be it.' Yuffie picked up the sheet of paper and held it closer to her eyes to check.

"I think we'll be taking that now" a voice from a child spoke up from behind her. Before Yuffie could grab her shuriken a huge bag was thrown over her head and enclosed inaroundher. Yuffie thrashed about in the bag but all she could hear were children maliciously laughing at her feeble attempt to escape.

"Let me out you little shits! I'm seriously going to kick your fucking arses" Yuffie yelled out.

"Yeah, sure you will" a boy said before Yuffie could reply she was hit in the head by a large object and knocked unconscious.

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_AN- Yeh I hate those 3 stooges... they will get their reckoning in the next chapter mwahaha. Well things will get a bit more on the main track again next chapter. Just got to have a bit of a rescue scene ;-) I've made it Halloween so soon because Yuffie's birthday is in November and well just trying to get Yuf a little bit older so it feels ...right... Well thanks for reading, reviews/comments are much appreciated. I'll get working on the next chapter now :-)_


	6. Revenge is Sweet

_AN: Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. I was kinda off and on with the chapter updating but as always its a nice long one for ya;-)I'll be finally getting KH2 in a month or so. But it'sthe UK ver. not Australian. The Australian release isnt til 28th September! -sigh- Gamers inAus. get the crap end of the stick. Well enjoy the chapter! It's got some nice action and fluff for ya :-D (I'm putting the rating up now incase the course language is getting a bit rough)_

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**Chapter VI – Revenge is Sweet**

Leon walked through the crowd having a growing suspicion that something had gone wrong. He saw Aerith standing next to Sally near one of the many gates in the area. "Have you seen Yuffie" Leon asked eying the area around them.

"No, I thought she was with you" she responded. Leon sighed and felt an oncoming headache approaching. "…Oh no!" Aerith said knowing exactly where Yuffie had gone.

"What? What is it? Do you know where she is?" Leon asked firmly. Aerith told him where Yuffie might have gone. Leon left before she could even finish her sentence.

'God, does this girl ever stay in one spot?' Leon thought frustrated at Yuffie's constant disappearing acts. 'How could she just go off like that? In this town especially! I don't even know what kind of people dwell in this place. For all I know she could be-"Leon's thoughts were cut short with yelling coming from the lab. He fastened his pace to a run and slammed open the door to the scientist laboratory. He un-sheafed his gunblade and held it ready.

"Those three little brats stole my report! I swear I'm going to make them my next subjects if I ever see them again!" the scientist yelled out in frustration. Leon quickly paced over to the scene easing back his gunblade.

"What happened?" He asked the scientist, demanding more the asking.

"Why should I tell you? Your 'friend' was part of it all" the scientist sneered back as he held out Yuffie's shuriken.

'Yuffie…' "Where did they take her?" Leon demanded again.

"What's happening?" Jack interrupted entering the door. "Is there something wrong?"

"Those henchmen of Oogy have taken my report!" the scientist rambled to Jack.

"What? Oogy? But how? I thought Sora took care of him" Leon said, remembering Sora ranting about this world and how he had defeated Oogy Boogy.

"Oogy can't be defeated; he's like the rest of us here." Jack said his now joyful face replaced with a more intense stare. "You can't kill something that's already dead."

'Shit! Yuffie's probably getting dragged there right now.' Leon thought. "Take me to him!" Leon asked Jack in a commanding tone. Not really caring for sincerities any more.

"Alright, follow me." Jack said.

"Hey! …Hey wake up!" an obnoxious voice said, followed by a kick in the shin.

"Owhh!" Yuffie broke awake, seeing the three loathsome children standing around her. Two of them were boys and one was a girl. One boy had a satanic mask, the other had a skull mask and the girl had witch mask. Yuffie tried to move but her hands and feet were bonded.

"Untie me you little shit heads!" Yuffie said trying to knock one out by thrusting her legs forward. She managed to knock the girl backwards into a bunch of cages. The two boys began to laugh when Yuffie knocked her over. Yuffie couldn't figure out if they were laughing at her or their accomplice. The girl who was just knocked over emerged a few moments later with a fuming look in her eyes.

"Shut up! Shut up!" she screamed hitting both the boys over the head. They shortly silenced afterwards, knowing it was taking away some their position of power. "I'm throwing her down to Oogy! That'll teach her for kicking me!" she said glaring at Yuffie.

"Oogy?" Yuffie said perplexed. 'How! I thought he got annihilated by Sora?' Yuffie thought rapidly as the children made their way towards her. From Sora's description of Oogy, he wasn't the prettiest site and Yuffie got nightmares from descriptions only.

"Hey! Let go off me!" Yuffie shouted, squirming around trying to escape their grip. For children as small as they were they were enchanted with some pretty strong arms. The more Yuffie struggled, the firmer their grip got. As they forcefully moved her to the back wall of the room, Yuffie looked up to where they were taking her. She was heading straight for a green coloured funnel. 'They're going to shove me in that!' Yuffie's eyes widened at the thought of being shoved down a pipe. She wouldn't call herself complete claustrophobic but being shoved down a tube freaked her out.

"We'll let Oogy Boogy deal with you!" the girl Yuffie had hit earlier said furiously.

"Yeah, and he just 'loves' the girlies" the satanic boy said deviously.

"And you seemed dressed just suitably for him" said the more stout boy.

"You dirty little basterds! I'm gonna kick your little arses once I-Ahhhhhhhhhh" Yuffie's threatening was caught short when she was shoved forcefully down the pipe. Yuffie fell down the pipe at incredible speed, almost as if the pipe was sucking her down to the bottom. When she arrived at the exit of the tunnel, she tumbled over repeatedly until she came to a halt bashing into the wall. Her vision was some what blurred and she felt incredibly dizzy.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in. Huhoho" a booming voice said from the darkness. A pair of malicious eyes illuminated from the darkness, eyeing down on Yuffie.

Yuffie shot back to consciousness and got on to her feet; she wobbled a bit, being slightly dizzy still from the rough entrance.

"Ohhoh so this little feast is gonna be a live one. Excellent, I love a bit of a game before I eat." The voice finally emerged from the darkness and appeared almost scarier then Sora had described to Yuffie. The sack of bugs was only half repaired from his last defeat. His face was half attached to whatever it was originally attached to and his seams were splitting in parts, oozing out bugs every so often. Yuffie's eyes widened and she couldn't help but tremble as he moved towards her.

'Ah crap!'

"How much further is it?" Leon enquired Jack whilst striding hastily behind him across a curling hill.

"It's just up ahead across that bridge." Jack said pointing out yonder to a rickety old bridge.

'We must go faster!' Leon thought, starting into a jog. Jack's long strides were enough to keep up with the fur covered man's fast pace. When they finally reached the bridge, Leon began to run up to the entrance of the house.

"Wait! That's not the way!" Jack called out behind him.

"What? It's the entrance isn't it?" Leon said impatiently turning to face Jack.

"Yes but not to where she will be, we must get to that door down there." Jack said pointing to a large green door at the base of the building. Leon walked to the edge of the path and looked down to where Jack was pointing.

"Over here" Jack called over Leon to the other side of the path. Jack jumped into some sort of cage attached to a wire, which had a lever on it. Leon assumed it would take them down so jumped into the cage as well.

"Hold on to something" Jack said trying to hold back excitement in his voice. Leon raised his eyebrow and was about to ask why but was interrupted abruptly as the cage shot towards the ground. Leon reached for the nearest handle to clamp on to as they plummeted. The cage suddenly jolted to a stop inches from the bottom of the ground. Leon couldn't help but feel just a little bit shaken from falling suddenly like that. Jack gave out a small laugh as he felt the rush of fear and adrenaline. Leon shot Jack a glare at his enjoyment of freefalling from a cage.

'If this guy enjoys freefalling then God knows what Oogy is like.' Leon thought.

"Ooo I like this one, never had this much fun since that 'boy' came along and screwed up my seams!" Oogy called out as he chased Yuffie around his den. Yuffie was glad for once that she had her ability 'Clear Tranquil' which was able to give back some of her energy. Since Oogy's horrific machines would catch only her flesh every so often. Other then some near misses, Yuffie was dodging his attacks quite fluently.

'God, the one time I can actually do some sweet moves is when NO ONEis here to see me do them!' Yuffie thought as she dodged another round of bullets from a set of robotic cowboys. She was thinking of ways to swipe an attack to the fat sack but was worried he might swallow her if she got to close to him. She was after all only a small person and up against Oogy she was twice as miniature.

'I have to try and get a weapon of some sort. Otherwise I'll just be running in circles. Hmmm, that giant cleaver over there could be useful.' Yuffie devised an idea as she turned to lure Oogy over.

"Yo fugly! You want some of this!" she called out pointing her backside towards him, swinging her devil tail around. "Then you'll have to come get it!" she concluded flashing her middle finger at him.

"Why you little-" He growled to her as he stampeded towards her. As he came closer to her, Yuffie watched the cleaver swinging from the ceiling, as it was about to swing right where she was standing she back flipped out of the way in order for Oogy to get slashed. Once she was back on her two feet after the flip she looked to see what had happened to Oogy. She was expecting an even more grotesque site then he already was but she didn't see him at all.

"Do you really think I'd get swiped by my own devices? Ooo you will be tasty!" He loomed from the shadows behind Yuffie. She turned around just in time to see him reach out for her.

"Hey Yuffie! Catch!" Yuffie heard a voice call out to her and a shine of silver shot out towards her. 'My shuriken!' Yuffie flipped up into the air and caught her shuriken mid jump. While still in the air she turned and threw the shuriken towards Oogy. The blade slices across his belly opening up more seams. Yuffie landed on the ground catching her shuriken when she landed.

"You're in for it now fugly sack!" Yuffie said standing ready for another attack with her ninja star. "…Thanks Leon" She said off to the side when she saw Leon appear besides her readying his gunblade.

"You're in trouble young lady" Leon said in slightly strict tone. "But first we're dealing with him" he said death glaring Oogy. Almost without warning Leon lunged forwards, slashing at the already injured sack of bugs. Yuffie could have sworn she heard Leon let out a ruthless growl as he went for the attack. 'Getting a bit in character are ya' Leon?' she thought giggling in her conscious before she too joined the battle. She jumped up into the air and spun her shuriken again towards Oogy. Leon continued to slash away at Oogy as he yelled out in pain and tried to escape using his machines in a means of attack.

"You can't beat me! Yargh!" Oogy cried out getting another shuriken slash across him.

"I'll make sure you remember us then!" Leon said raising his gunblade to swing in his next attack, 'Rough Divide'.

"Leon, Yuffie you two escape I'll hold back Oogy." Jack said appearing into the battle. They both heard his call and ran to the exit. Yuffie swung her shuriken one last time and flipped off one of the rises to land on the floor. Her petite devil wings fluttered as she jumped off. Leon couldn't help but notice her rise in fighting skills as they exited hastily.

"Phew! That was a close one!" Yuffie said wiping her fore head and placed her hands on her knees to regain her breath, subconsciously remembering that Leon is just about to lecture her.

"I haven't seen you fight that well before… I guess if you're really put into a bad situation you can fight just as good with out me saving you from your pending doom." Leon said easing his gunblade on his shoulder.

'Did…I black out and miss Leon's two hour lecture on me running off without permission or is Leon complimenting my fighting ?…' "Um …thanks…I think" Yuffie said bewildered at Leon's compliment.

"Though that doesn't mean you can run off like you did! I'm not some knight in shining armour to come save your sorry arse all the time!" Leon said.

'Nope he was just postponing it…well why don't you spank me for being such a bad girl…damn it! Stupid head! Shut up! I don't want to fall for a 25 year old…who's staring at me…and god 'damn' he's hot…Damit' Yuffie said snapping out of her daydream.

"Well …it's not like I 'came' out here! Those little-…I'll be right back." Yuffie said remembering a group of kids she owes a 'visit' to.

"What? Where are you going? We have to get back! Yuffie!" Leon said calling out to her as he followed her.

"How the hell do you get back up there?" Yuffie said frustrated as she walked a circle around the base of the structure.

"Over here." Leon said walking into the cage which had gotten him down in the first place. Yuffie walked in with him and waited till the cage went up. She watched as Leon tried to pull the lever. Nothing happened.

"Yep, I think we're getting much closer…to the bottom." Yuffie said.

"Well let's see your means of transport, oh great leader Yuffie." Leon said sarcastically to Yuffie.

"With pleasure!" she responded robustly, exiting the cage. She was standing in the spot for awhile trying to see something to help them up, when a white object caught her eye. 'What…the hell…it's moving!' Yuffie thought as she tried to identify the object. She ran towards it and as she did the object identified itself to be a walking bathtub.

"This place is weird as all hell but I'm taking my chance with the bath tub. Hey Leon! Over here!" Leon walked around behind her as she was following the bathtub walk in circles round the base of the building.

"What the-" Leon said baffled at the portable tub.

"Let's jump into it!" Yuffie said getting ready to do so.

"What?"

"Come on!" Yuffie grabbed his arm and pulled him in after her in the tub. The both of them squashed in the tub with Leon landing on top of Yuffie as they fell in. The tub moved into action as they got in and started to head up the tree house-like building. Yuffie grew extremely red as she felt Leon lying on her back. She was practically engulfed by him since he was a lot larger then she was, though his warmth was lifted shortly falling in, as he pushed himself up into a sitting position towards the back of the tub. Yuffie sat up soon after he did. Sitting to the front and facing forward rather then facing Leon, since she didn't want him to see her extremely embarrassed expression, also to see where they were heading.

'Note to self: don't pull Leon into a moveable bath tub… What do I mean, 'don't'? Arghh damn it!' Yuffie thought, trying to fight the nerve to make her want to latch onto him.

"Well seems to be working" Leon said breaking the silence watching as the tub took them up the tree. As the tub went up the tree it started to elevate vertically, making it hard for Yuffie to stay at the front of the tub.

'Oh crap my grip is slipping. My arms are so sore from that fight, argh no…must…keep gri-' Yuffie's effort was in vain and she crashed into Leon.

"Sorry, I really didn't purposely let go! I mean I might of but ah…never mind" Yuffie spluttered out trying to move off him.

"…It's ok, just stop moving. You're pulling on this god forsaken mane of hair." Leon said slightly aggravated with his appearance, cringing every so often when Yuffie accidentally pulled on his mane.

"Sorry again heh" Yuffie said nervously laughing. 'Though your mane is mighty nice on my back… doh! Well I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. I doubt I'll ever get this close to him again.' By the time Yuffie had stopped fidgeting the tub had reached the bridge in which Leon had left earlier. Leon nudged Yuffie with his chest to signal her to get off him and out of the tub. Yuffie flinched when he did this as if she was snapped out of thought and practically jumped out of the tub faster then she got in.

"Are you alright?" Leon asked, oblivious to the fact Yuffie was embarrassed about their recent situation. Being the typical male, he doesn't suspect a thing.

"Yeah, yeah! Fine, fine!" Yuffie said while looking up to the top of the building. She saw lights on at the top of the roof. 'Those little basterds must be up there. I think I owe them some payback.' Yuffie thought vengefully, heading towards the door.

"Where are you going now?" Leon asked getting tired of her constant walking off.

"I'm paying a couple of 'friends' a visit." She said slyly, grinning at her thoughts of revenge. Taking out her shuriken, she twirled it in her finger while looking back at Leon. "I think I owe them thanks for their lovely kidnapping skills." Stopping the twirling blade in her hands, she spun on her foot and ran towards the building. Leon followed her without questioning feeling he needed to see who these kidnappers were.

Once they finally reached the top, Yuffie paused outside the entrance to the room which voices could be heard from. Leon waited a few steps behind; resting his gunblade on his shoulder then having it ready for battle, since he felt Yuffie should have the right to do her own payback.

'3…2…1!' Yuffie kicked open the door and threw her shuriken so that it would spin round the entire room. The three children were caught by surprise and were all hit by the shuriken. Yuffie caught it easily with her right hand and eased back since the three of them were crying out from the floor.

"I told you I'd come back to kick your sorry little arses" Yuffie said standing over the three of them. She glared down to them as they looked up at her in fear.

"We're sorry!"

"Please don't hurt us any more!"

"We were only told by Oogy to do these things!"

The three of them said cowering at her feet. Yuffie almost felt sorry for them…almost.

"We'll give you back your paper!" the girl said shaking Ansem's report to Yuffie. Yuffie took it willingly and stood down from them. Leon started to calculate what had actually happened to Yuffie and how she got into trouble. He merely shook his head at Yuffie's kleptomaniac issues.

"Well since I'm too tired to kick your arses more I'll let you off the hook this time, but next time you won't be so lucky!" Yuffie said trying to sound threatening. Leon thought it wasn't very effective, well from his point of view but I guess he wasn't 5 feet high.

The two of them left the three trick-o-treaters to tend to their wounds and headed towards town. It didn't take long for Leon to bring up the topic of the report.

"So why did you do it?" Leon asked.

"Do what?" Yuffie said pretending to not know what he was asking. Leon looked at her intensely to get her to take things more seriously. "Ok fine! Jezz your eyes are creepy when they're yellow…well anyway, I did it because the reports are more important to us then that freaky scientist. I mean he was trying to figure out ways to control the heartless! Isn't that proof enough that it's better in our hands?" Yuffie said trying to prove her innocence of stealing the documents.

"That still doesn't mean you can just take the documents" Leon said. "…though you do have a point"

'I know…WHAT!' Yuffie thought at Leon's shocking response. 'He's 'agreeing' with me? Ok this world is flipping me out!'

"I was going to propose a trade to the scientist but I guess we won't need to do that now that you have the document" Leon said noticing Yuffie's shocked expression. "You think I didn't know about his experiments? Aerith even suggested to me to propose a trade"

'Aerith too! Man, she was the one telling 'me' not to take the document. Well…I guess her way of obtaining it is different…but it's still the same thing!' Yuffie thought as Leon waited for a response from her. "Well I guess staying for longer really was useful" Yuffie said smiling at Leon.

"Yeah I guess…" Leon said in return.

"There you two are! I was getting so worried!" Aerith said running towards the two of them. They had finally reached town again and the party was nearing its end with only a few gatherings of people, or monsters in this case, remained.

"Yeah! It's a good thing Leon showed up when he did with my shuriken. I mean I would have been done for if he didn't!" Yuffie said pointing at Leon with her thumb and standing proudly with the outcome of their win.

"Jack also came to help, he made an escape for us" Leon added.

"Ah, you have returned safely!" A voice said from behind them, which turned out to be Jack.

"Thank you for your help back there" Leon said to him.

"Yeah! Your help was really great! I hope you taught that Oogy a lesson or two" Yuffie said as well.

"Yes, I believe we won't be hearing from him for awhile, you can count on that!" Jack said optimistically to them. "I'm sorry you had to confront him." He said apologetically.

"Nah, it's cool. It helped me get back in shape anyway!" Yuffie said smiling at him.

"Well, we best be off." Leon interrupted as he saw the scientist heading their way. Yuffie and the rest also spotted him carting his way towards them. They all knew what was coming and decided to hastily wave goodbye to Jack and head towards their airship.

Yuffie started to giggle once they all entered the airship.

"What's so funny?" Leon asked, not really expecting a straight answer.

"Hehehe You all started to bail when the scientist was coming, hahah you're starting to pick up my traits now! Before long you'll be stealing materia" Yuffie said bursting out laughing as they all looked guilty for what they were accused of.

"Well I ain't dealing with no shit from that wheelies guy about that damn report you have hanging out your pocket" Cid said, grateful he was out of his tin can costume.

"You better watch your materia then" Leon said.

"No way in hell you guys laying a hand on my materia!" Yuffie said forcefully. Everyone smiled and laughed at Yuffie's typical reaction, even Leon managed to quirk in a small smile. Yuffie smiled back at them all in return. "Well …let's go home"

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_AN- And we're outta Halloween Town! Yay back to character stories! XD Yeah the course language is building up a bit, but in my opinion they suited the situations at hand. Yuffie aint all weak :-P I'm trying to make her fight her emotions to Leon because in my opinion, if I liked a guy that old I would think there was something wrong with me. But then again, it's Leon XD. Hope you enjoyed their little side trip, next chapter is filling in the plot holes I've created XD also a bit of story intertwining. Hope to have it up in a month...if I'm not fully swept away by KH2 :-P_


	7. An Overview

_AN- Hey Viewers Sorry for being so late! I finally got KH2 and got distracted..plus I was a bit uninspired til now. I'm at the very end of KH2. I'm just too scared to finish it. Mainly because I don't want it to end -cries- Well I'll be joining this story right on to the KH2 story line. So in a few chapters it should fuse right onto it. It may seem to be fast forwarded a bit but I gotta pull it up somehow heh. Thank you everyone for your lovely comments! You're comments really keep me going with this story. I hope you enjoy this next chapter _

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**Chapter VII – An Overview**

The group had been flying in the nothingness of space for awhile since leaving Halloween Town. Yuffie was saddened when her Halloween spell was taken off her. She missed having her little devil wings and tail. Leon on the other hand was thanking the heavens that he didn't have to take care of the large growth of hair on his chest.

"I'm going to take a rest." Leon stated as he walked to his unit in the airship. Yuffie didn't particularly like going to bed but after her battle in Halloween Town she was pretty spent. Aerith went as well and Cid soon followed after putting the airship on auto-pilot.

"'Night everyone! …At least I think its night" Yuffie called out from her room after putting on her sleep wear. Out of the three she called out to, Aerith's response was the clearest she could hear. The other responses were a jumble of mumbles.

Yuffie found it hard to get to sleep quickly. She would always end up sitting up in bed reading a comic or drawing little doodles of random things. For example: herself dressed as a super ninja or winning over Leon's heart. She tended to destroy all evidence of those drawings. In case, God forbid, Leon found them. Sometimes the thought would freak her out so much that if she heard someone walking past her door she would shove the paper in her mouth and attempt to eat it. Most of the time, it was just someone going to the bathroom or fridge. She'd then regurgitate the paper from the mouth and flatten it out to dry it out. But on this flight she had forgotten to pack her drawing utensils and reading material so she didn't have much else to do but zone out to sleep.

'This bed is 'so' not sleeping material' Yuffie thought as she lay down onto it. 'I've slept on logs better then this! Not that I would sleep on a log…' While staring into space she thought about what had happened at Halloween Town.

'Man, I haven't had a work out that hard since the Tournaments at the coliseum. If Leon hadn't come in when he did I would have been decomposing in the belly of that ugly sack of maggots.' Yuffie shuddered at the thought. 'I must really get on his nerves sometimes…I mean it's not I 'look' for trouble. It just happens to find me…often.' She sighed to herself. 'I guess I'm more of a burden then anything else…ergh I shouldn't start thinking like this, it's too depressing. Tomorrow I'll make sure to stay out of trouble…well at least not too much trouble' she nodded and closed her eyes to go to sleep.

'I wonder why he wanted to get back home so much…'

"_Believe in yourself and your heart will bare a light that will protect you" a voice whispered into a girl's ear. _

_A dark subject lunged towards them but was torn apart by a fast blade running through the air. The two girls looked up to see who had saved them. _

"_What the hell are you two kids doing!" a gruff man said readying his spear for another wave of monsters. "Quick! Head towards my airship, it's over there in the hanger!" The man said pointing the way by nodding his head in the direction of the airship hangers. The elder girl picked up the younger one and headed towards the airship. The man ran close behind, hitting off the stray monsters which were following them. When they reached the airship they paused and waited for the older man._

"_Pull the switch saying 'Lift to Open' to open the hatch!" The man yelled when he caught up with them. She did as he ordered and the hatch slowly opened to the airship. "Don't wait for it to open up completely, just jump in!" the man said again when he saw the girls waiting for the door to open. The young lady lifted the clinging girl up onto the ship._

"_It's alright, we're going to be fine now" she coaxed the girl trying to get her to let go of her arm. The toddler released her arm slowly and watched the young woman climb aboard after her. The man slashed down a few more creatures before jumping aboard as well. _

"_Quick! Hit that switch again!" He called out to the pink clad girl as he stood at the door ready for any more dark creatures. Some nearly got aboard but the man slashed them down with his spear before they got fully aboard. Once the door was finally shut the sound of the creatures scratching against the door started to form. The man rushed to the cockpit and started the engines. The little girl went to the nearest window and only saw darkness and yellow eyes staring towards her. The area around her was being ripped up into a huge black hole above the castle._

"_Hold on girls!" a gruff voice said over the speaker phone. At saying this, the airship jolted to movement and slowly began to rise from the ground. As the ship rose, the creatures clinging to the airship slowly lost grip and fell back into the darkness._

_The pilot of the ship didn't seem to know where he was going, or what he was going to do to keep them safe. They just stayed in mid-flight for awhile before the youngest girl spotted something on the ground. From where she was sitting all she could make out was a small glint of light._

"_Miss flower lady! Miss flower lady!" she called out. The said person rushed over to her and looked at what the girl was pointing at. _

"_Sir! We must get lower!" The young woman called out. _

"_What! You got to be kidding! We aren't going any lower unless you want to die!" He yelled back._

"_There's somebody down there who needs help, mister!" the little girl pleaded to the pilot. _

"_What! How could-" He paused as he too saw the small glint of light down on the ground. "Ergh, I'll fly in low. You'll have to take the steering when I go to get them." He said directing it at the older girl. She nodded with agreement and listened to his crash course of steering an airship. _

_As the airship got closer to the light, a figure could be seen clutching at nothingness. The little girl just kept staring at them until she could recognise the person's features. She gasped with recognition as she figured out who it was. 'It's the man from across the river!' She wanted to follow the pilot outside to help but was shouted back when she followed him to the door. His voice was very commanding and she obeyed straight away. _

_The airship was low enough to jump out and land safely on the ground without causing too much injury. The younger girl watched the older man jump down and run out towards where the young man was. The eerie glow had diminished by the time the pilot had run up to him. The pilot spoke to the young man then began to shake his shoulder to get him to move. The girl couldn't tell if the young man knew the pilot was there or not but soon enough there were dark creatures starting to surround them. The pilot was shaking him a lot more vigorously and shouting words to him which she could not hear. The pilot said one last thing to him before the young man rose from the ground slowly. He dragged up a blade with a gun shaped handle. The weight of the weapon appeared heavy on his hands. As they made their way back to the ship, the pilot slashed down a couple of dark creatures as they went. _

"_Pull it up!" the pilot yelled once the two men had got onto the ship. At saying this, the airship jolted sharply up, so much so that it knocked the younger girl off the seat she was sitting on. The pilot cursed and ran to the cockpit, where it soon became a lot steadier. The young man who just boarded the ship slouched against the wall and slid down into a sitting position. The little girl just watched him hang his head down and almost return to the blank state in which they found him. She slowly shifted over to him; intimidated by his body language she almost seemed to be daring herself to go closer. When she finally came within a metre of him she couldn't figure out what to say to him. His clothes weren't in the best form. His long sleeved black jacket had dirt and scratch marks on it and the fur around the collar was more a murky brown then the pure white it originally was. The rest of his clothes were worn out in the same manner._

"_What?" He mumbled out noticing the young girl staring at him. She jolted aback when she heard him speak to her. _

"_Ah…Umm…heh…nothing!" she responded shyly._

_He stared at her for awhile before speaking again. "You're that little girl from across the river, aren't you?"_

"_Eh! …ye...yes" She stuttered back. There was a silence before the little girl looked up again. She saw him looking straight at her but his eyes seemed out of focus, as if he was in deep thought. After a few moments he went back to looking down at his chest again. The little girl shifted closer more until she was sitting next to one of his outstretched legs._

"_Where are your friends?" She said innocently looking at his hair, since his face was looking down. _

"…_They're gone…" He muttered in response._

"_Are they on another airplane?" she responded unknowingly of what he meant by 'gone'._

"…_no…they're-" he paused when he looked up into her face again. Seeing the innocent child she was he withdrew the idea of telling her the truth. "…yeah, another plane…" he said nonchalantly._

"_Are we going to meet them at the airport?" She continued to question. He twitched slightly, as if her words were putting pressure on the truth more. _

"…_I don't know" he said looking the other direction. _

"_We'll meet them again, I promise." At saying these words the young man turned to the little girl looking at her as if he'd recognised something she had said. She tilted her head, perplexed at his expression, but her confusion was cut short when the airship violently jolted, throwing the little girl into the young mans lap. He held on to her to keep her from rolling off him and bashing into the surroundings of the airship._

"_Oh shit! Everyone hold on to something! We're being sucked into the black hole! Oh fu-!" The microphone was cut out with loud static and the whole airship began to shake viciously as it neared the warp hole. The little girl clutched onto the man's chest as the airship spun around. Then suddenly everything went black._

"Rise and shine sleeping beauties! We're entering Heartless territory. So get your arses into gear." Cid's voice spoke out over the speaker phone, resulting in the end of Leon's rest. He pushed himself up with his hands and sat upright a few seconds before sliding off onto his feet, putting his shoes back on as well as his jacket, belts and gloves. Heading out the door he headed towards the cockpit, fixing his hair as he walked.

"First up as always" Cid greeted Leon as he walked into the cockpit. "I think I've found a shortcut through the heartless but it'll be risky. Damn it! I should have made a replica of that gummi piece I gave Sora to get that warp portal to Hollow Bastion." Cid said practically to himself since Leon had zoned out staring out into space. He nodded vaguely so Cid didn't see him not paying attention. The door opened again to Aerith fiddling with one of her curls in her hair.

"So, are we nearly there Cid?" She asked finishing up with her hair.

"If I hotwire the system and load a new program then I could-" he continued rambling to himself, opening up the door to the control system. Aerith just looked at Leon for an answer but only got a shrug.

"Should we wake up Yuffie?" Leon suggested still staring out into space to see if any heartless were homing in on their location.

"Would someone get me a coffee?" Cid ordered anonymously.

"I'll get the coffee, Leon you go wake up Yuffie." Aerith said smiling at Leon. He turned abruptly to her, looking as if he was just told to clean the toilets. Aerith let out a small giggle and headed to where the food supplies were. "Good luck!"

"Yeah thanks…" Leon said. He only knew one thing, and that was that Yuffie was so hard to wake up it was if she was in a coma.

He exited the cockpit and headed towards the room Yuffie was in. He opened the door to see Yuffie sprawled over the bed with the covers tangled around her leg. Leon smirked and shook his head at her predicted appearance. He walked up to her bed and stared at her for a few moments, trying to figure out the best way to wake her without causing a ruckus.

"Yuffie" he said in a low voice. No response. He raised his hands and took off his gloves. Lowering himself to her level, he put a hand onto her shoulder and shook her gently. "Yuffie…wake up" She still didn't respond and just continued sleeping. He sighed and continued to call her name. Then he went to stage 2; the ripping off the bed sheets. Since the airship was air-conditioned it was quite cool. Nothing woke up a person more then having their warmth stripped from them and to have the hard cold hit them. Leon grasped the bed sheets and pulled them straight off. To his satisfaction Yuffie did awaken from her slumber. She made a girly whinging sound and clutched for the covers, still with her eyes closed. She got hold of them and started to play tug-o-war with Leon.

"I'm co-o-o-ld! Give me the covers back Aerith!" Yuffie whinged not realising that Leon was the one grasping the covers. She tugged on the covers and starting to roll on her side to give her some more pull.

"Heh, you know you're not going to win" Leon chuckled out. Yuffie spun around wide awake looking at Leon.

"Holy Frek! Wh-what are you doing!" Yuffie said with a high pitched voice, shocked to see Leon standing over her with her bed covers.

"Waking you up?" he responded bluntly. "Now hurry up and get ready, we'll probably be getting another rough trip…unless Cid can figure out that alternative he was mumbling about."

"Wh-what? Waking…I…hey wait!" Yuffie stuttered, calling to Leon as he started to exit. He stopped and turned his head to her. "…You have my bed covers…"

"Oh…sorry" He stepped back and handed the covers to Yuffie.

"What's that?" Yuffie said pointing at a bit of yellow fabric coming out of one of his jacket pockets.

"What's what?" Leon said looking down at where she was pointing. He realised straight away what it was and couldn't believe he still had it with him for all this time. He unzipped the jacket pocket and took out the scarf he had kept with him from when Yuffie had left it in his room at Traverse Town. Yuffie gasped with astonishment at seeing her scarf. As well as the fact that Leon had it with him.

"My scarf!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"Yeah, yo-"

"Why do you have it! Wait…how long have you had it?" Yuffie interrupted Leon.

"Well if you let me finish I can explain." Leon said, trying to explain things out to Yuffie before she started to think differently of the situation. He paused before starting the story since he was trying to recap it all in his head. Yuffie stared at him with thoughts blaring in her head on how things came to how they were.

"Well?" Yuffie said still waiting impatiently for Leon who was just staring at the scarf in his hand.

"…You left it in my room in Traverse Town. I was meant to give it to you sooner but…well I really don't know why I didn't. I guess I just lost track and forgot. Sorry" He said handing her the yellow scarf.

"Ah…thanks…heh…Hehehe" Yuffie said starting to giggle.

"…What?" Leon said perplexed.

"Just you!" Yuffie said taking the scarf from Leon's hands giving him a perky smile. Leon didn't quite understand what she meant but smirked back at her smile.

"Hey! Lovebirds get your asses over here!" Cid said standing at the door.

"W-We're not lovebirds!" a flushed Yuffie exclaimed, sticking her tongue out at Cid as he turned back to the cockpit.

"I'll meet you there then." Leon said exiting the room quietly and closing the door behind him. Yuffie was still burning in the face after the little event that had just occurred.

'He had my scarf this whole time!' Yuffie thought still amazed at that fact. '…it still smells of him' she giggled wildly at her girlish antics. Quickly getting changed into her usually getup, now complete with her scarf, she headed out to the cockpit to see what all the fuss was about.

"The Yufster has arrived!" Yuffie announced patriotically when she entered the cockpit posing at the door. It was obvious that the event that had just occurred with Leon and her was still pumping adrenaline to her face.

"Yeah, that's great" Cid said bluntly. "Ok, What I've done is hook up the jet-"

"Again with the rambling" Yuffie muttered quietly to herself, snickering at her own remark.

"So will we make it through or not?" Leon said interrupting Cid's rambling, obviously not really caring how or why, as long as it works.

"Tch! Fine, we're going through a wormhole which should slingshot us around the back of Hollow Bastion, therefore missing the heartless. Happy?" Cid said gruffly not particularly happy to have no one interested in his master plan.

"What makes you think it'll work?" Leon asked folding his arms in his infamous style.

"A hunch" Cid responded

"A hunch?" Yuffie blurted out.

"Yeah! You don't have much choice anyway, unless you want us to be blown into smithereens by a swarm of heartless" Cid said turning to the controls readying the airship to go. "You lot should all find a seat to strap yourselves into. I can't guarantee a smooth trip." Cid ordered to everyone.

Yuffie walked to a seat and strapped herself in. She watched Leon do the same to a seat in front of her. Aerith came and sat next to her.

"How was the wake up alarm?" Aerith whispered into Yuffie's ear.

"What! That was you!" Yuffie whispered violently back to Aerith. Aerith giggled at Yuffie's reaction.

"Hehehe you're so cute! I'm sure you enjoyed every bit of it anyway" Aerith whispered back.

"Grrr, shut up! I thought you were the kind and considerate one but now I'm rethinking that idea of you" Yuffie said quietly, huffing at the end. Aerith just smiled at Yuffie and looked ahead to watch Cid set up the controls.

"Ok kids, hang on!" At saying this Cid shot the controls forward and the ship lurched back from the momentum. The aircraft took sharp turns in every possible direction. Yuffie couldn't tell what was happening because everything was moving so fast. She closed her eyes and clutched onto the seat hoping the airship would come to a stop relatively soon. Sirens started to buzz over head, warning of overheating in the engines.

"Warning! Warning! System Overload, System Overload, Warning-"

Yuffie had her eyes shut so tight that it hurt. The airship started to spiral and thrust around. The air pressure had tightened and Yuffie began to feel extremely dizzy. Her head felt heavy and started to sulk down onto her chest. She let out a small moan for help but the light headedness caught up with her and she fainted into the seat.

"…Hey"

"Mmm?"

"Hey, Yuffie you ok?"

"Mmno"

"Here have some water"

"W-who?" Yuffie felt a gloved hand cup her chin and lift her head up to reach the bottle of water. The hand stayed there to keep her head up.

"You're coming round now"

"S-Squall?"

"As much as I hate you saying that name, I'll let you get away with it this time"

Yuffie's vision was returning now and saw Leon kneeling at her side next to her seat holding her head up.

"Don't worry, you just fainted. You should be fine in no time." Leon said. "Aerith also passed out but she's fine now." Yuffie's movement and awareness was gradually coming back. Leon took his hand away from her face and gave her the water bottle to hold on to. "We should be landing soon. So just sit here till then." He said getting up off his feet.

"Th-Thank you…Leon" Yuffie said slightly slurred still from her light headedness. Leon smiled slightly and nodded at her before walking over to Cid to help land the airship.

'These days keep becoming more and more eventful' Yuffie thought to herself watching Leon at the front desk. Aerith came down to sit next to her; her movement was slow and had to support herself as she came down next to her.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, still looking pale from her own collapse.

"I'm ok, I guess. What about you? You look as bad as I feel." Yuffie said gaining a bit more strength in her recovery.

"Heh I'll be right. You're not the only one who gets airsick." Aerith said taking a sip of water.

"Ok we'll be landing in 5mins. So our little reunion with home grounds will be here soon." Cid said readying the controls.

Yuffie looked out the window and saw the place she called home come into view.

"…We're home" Aerith said.

"Yeah…home" Yuffie said, looking towards Leon. He looked troubled by what he saw. Yuffie turned back to look closer at the world and knew why Leon looked so. Her home was practically in ruins. 'Guess we got a lot of work ahead of us'

* * *

_AN- Finally at HB! Yay! Only problem is to get things to link in nicely with each other. I'll try to get the next chapter up early. But I can't promise anything. Sorry But I do have ideas for the future chapters! It'll get somewhere good when I get to the KH2 realm of the story -nod-_

_PS- For those who are interested I have started to make a doujinshifan comic version of chapter one of this story. If you are interested in seeing it, feel free to visit my Deviant Art account. You can find the link in my profile page on this site._


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